The vigorous development of new energy vehicles, as well as the promotion of policies and markets, have made China the world's leading producer and consumer of lithium-ion batteries. A large number of lithium-ion batteries have entered the market, and the recycling and reuse of used lithium-ion batteries has become a major industry challenge. .
Large-scale retirement period is coming
According to data released by China Automotive Technology and Research Center, this year, new energy vehicle power batteries will gradually enter a large-scale scrapping and recycling period. It is estimated that by 2020, China's power battery recycling will exceed 220,000 tons, and in 2022 it will reach 422,000 tons.
The reporter learned that the current recycling of power batteries is divided into ladder utilization and dismantling and recycling. The use of ladders is mainly for the capacity reduction. The batteries that cannot operate the electric vehicles but have not been scrapped are still in use, but they can still be used in the field of power storage. Dismantling and recycling is to recycle the waste battery with serious battery capacity loss, and recycle the valuable resources. The purpose of the old battery recycling is to use the ladder. The battery without the use value is called the waste battery. The centralized disposal of batteries is for resource regeneration and also to prevent pollution. 'Yang Yusheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out.
In the face of the current recycling status of power batteries, Zhao Jinsheng, chairman of China Battery Industry Association, expressed concern. 'At this stage, China's waste lithium-ion battery recycling system is still not perfect, and recycling technology and business model have not yet reached the mature standard. 'China Electric Vehicle Chen Qingtai, chairman of the 100-member conference, also expressed similar views. 'At present, the use of technology is immature, the acquisition network is imperfect, management measures are not perfect, and support policies are not in place. The problem is still plaguing China's power battery recycling industry, business model and profitability. The model is yet to be explored. '
Recycling multiple questions to be solved
'China's cobalt, nickel resources are small, the price is subject to people, it is difficult to support the production of tens of thousands of class electric vehicles.' Yang Yusheng said when talking about the difficulties faced by the battery industry.
At present, the mainstream technical route of China's new energy passenger car battery is ternary battery, that is, lithium battery with lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide or lithium cobalt aluminum aluminate as cathode material, cobalt is indispensable as a stabilizer.
Statistics show that the cobalt content in China's cobalt mine is only 0.02%, and the proven recoverable amount is only 80,000 tons. The cobalt resources used for battery production are heavily dependent on imports. 'If the cobalt can be effectively recovered from the decommissioned battery , will greatly ease the external dependence of China's rare metal resources. 'Tsinghua University professor Xu Shengming stressed to reporters.
At the same time, enterprises neglect battery safety, and blindly improve the battery specific energy problem is also worrying. 'In order to increase the specific energy, the ratio of ternary battery nickel-cobalt manganese has evolved from 333, 523 to 622, 811, by increasing the nickel content. Increase the voltage, the heat runaway temperature is getting lower and lower!' Yang Yusheng told reporters that the safety of power batteries is directly related to the actual existence of energy. 'The purpose of developing electric vehicles is to save energy and reduce emissions. Some electric vehicles only save fuel, and There is no emission reduction. At present, many policies are misleading. Ignore the higher the specific energy of the battery, the more the battery, and the lower the safety, which deviates from the initial intention of energy saving and emission reduction.
In addition, the system of echelon utilization is not perfect, and it is still the biggest problem facing the old battery recycling field. Wang Zidong, director of the National 863 Electric Vehicle Major Special Power Battery Test Center, said that the battery capacity can reach the next step, to reach To what extent can not be used for the use of the ladder and need to enter the recycling process, there is no clear standard.
The reporter learned that the early power batteries that can be used in the use of ladders have only a few high-quality lithium iron phosphate batteries, and the remaining batteries, including ternary batteries, have no use value. In response to this phenomenon, Huang Xuejie, a researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes After using for a period of time, the ternary battery is difficult to ensure the uniformity of the electrochemical properties of the internal materials of the battery, so there is a safety risk for the use of the ladder. In addition, Huang Xuejie also said that if the battery is disassembled, the cost will be greatly increased. It is valuable not to disassemble the battery pack for direct application.
Looking forward to lithium iron phosphate battery in the future
The reporter found that the objective condition of the lack of cobalt-nickel in China is an important reason for the high price of ternary lithium batteries. However, lithium iron phosphate batteries are the opposite, because they do not contain any precious metals, and the main raw material of their cathode materials is iron oxide, lithium carbonate. Waiting for a very rich reserve in China. Yang Yusheng is full of confidence in the development of domestic lithium iron phosphate batteries. 'At present, the specific energy of lithium iron phosphate battery has been 140-180Wh/kg, and the battery cycle life exceeds 3000 times. The price is about 1 yuan / Wh, which is more prominent in the use of the ladder. '
In view of the problems in the utilization of battery ladders, the establishment of a traceable battery management system is expected. The Interim Measures for the Management of Recycling and Utilization of New Energy Vehicles' Power Batteries jointly issued by the 7 ministries and commissions have been implemented on August 1, and the Measures require The automobile production enterprise bears the main responsibility of the recovery of the power battery, and at the same time establishes the comprehensive management platform for the national monitoring and power battery recycling and utilization source of new energy vehicles, and collects information on the whole process of production, sales, use, scrapping, recycling and utilization of the power battery. In this regard, Huang Xuejie said that only by designing a one-to-one management strategy based on a comprehensive analysis of the historical data of the power battery pack, can it be played well. The value of the second life.
'To adhere to safety first, the use of ladders and disposal of waste batteries should be systematically arranged. Lithium-ion batteries should be protected from damage during the whole process. 'Yang Yusheng emphasized that safety is the focus of power battery recycling. The whole process of green, energy-saving production process is the development trend of battery technology in the future. 'Lithium-ion battery recycling, disposal should pay attention to innovation, waste battery disposal to be highly environmentally friendly, encourage innovative environmentally friendly waste battery disposal process, to achieve all resources Recycling. '
In addition, the development of extended-range electric vehicle technology, reducing the battery usage of pure electric vehicles, can also fundamentally reduce the generation of waste batteries. As an advocate of the technology, Yang Yusheng said: 'Some people questioned the increase in the program or to burn oil, It is not the ultimate goal. But I think it is necessary to use energy conservation and emission reduction as a horizontal standard to test the policy and technical route. The ultimate goal of electric vehicles is not necessarily a pure electric vehicle that does not burn oil. It is likely that it does not burn oil and burns alcohol. Increased-range electric vehicles. We need third-generation extensions to go into production to cope with the impact of subsidies on electric vehicles.'
