The number of new energy vehicles is growing rapidly. Where do decommissioned batteries go?

More and more new energy vehicles on the street are carrying an attractive but somewhat "hot" "bonanza"-power batteries. 2021 is considered to be the first year of the wave of power battery retirement, and the track surrounding the recycling and echelon utilization of power batteries has also become more and more hot. However, in this field that is considered to be a 100 billion-level blue ocean, the more valuable ternary lithium battery retirement wave has not yet arrived. Under the current market situation of "wolves and less meat", more batteries have flowed into the hands of "black households". How to form a standardized recycling system and how to achieve a safer and more efficient reuse plan are still being explored.

The two mainstream reuse schemes have their own problems

In the laboratory of a “whitelisted” enterprise that uses power battery recycling and echelon, a retired battery can be the starting point for reuse. The first step is to conduct an all-round “physical examination”. "We first need to know how much energy is left in this battery, what is the loss during use, etc., before we can formulate its reuse plan." The relevant person in charge told reporters that this is actually one of the biggest difficulties in reuse. "Because the situation of each retired battery is different, even the same brand or even the same production batch of batteries will have different ‘health conditions’ after years of use."

The reporter was informed that batteries with good "health conditions" may be reused without disassembly, while batteries with complex conditions can take months to run just for "physical examination" data just plugged into a computer. The high degree of uncertainty makes it difficult for this recycling scheme to achieve large-scale at present, but in the past two years, companies have also tried to explore some utilization scenarios. For example, the development of mobile energy storage products to supplement the emergency power of automobiles; the use of decommissioned batteries to develop photovoltaic energy storage projects; the development of low-speed power battery packs based on decommissioned power battery modules and batteries, which are put into market application through the lease model.

Another recycling program is aimed at the "materials" in decommissioned batteries. The power battery giant Ningde Times acquired Bangpu, which is the main representative of material utilization. "First, completely discharge the battery module, and use automated equipment and professional tools to separate the battery cells. Disassemble and separate the positive electrode, negative electrode, electrolyte and diaphragm and other components, and then leaching and removing the electrode material. Ion exchange, precipitation, adsorption and other processes are used to prepare the precursor of the power battery cathode material. At present, the total recovery rate of core metals can reach more than 99.3%." The relevant person in charge of Ningde Times introduced.

Although this approach is relatively mature, the person in charge said frankly that due to the complexity of the process, the retired batteries are mostly lithium iron phosphate batteries with low content of valuable metals and materials, so the current economic efficiency of power battery recycling is low, and even losses.

"Whitelist" companies can't grab "black households"

The decommissioning tide of ternary lithium batteries, which has truly made the market "coveted", has not yet arrived. At present, the recycling process of power batteries has shown a situation of "more wolves and less meat". Industry insiders estimate that nearly 80% of power batteries have not flowed into formal channels, and are recycled by so-called "black households" and processed in small workshops.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has twice publicized the "Industry Standard Conditions for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles" the list of companies in 2018 and January this year. More than 20 companies have been selected as "whitelists." However, the relevant person in charge of the aforementioned "whitelist" enterprise said frankly: "Despite the formal qualifications, the number of batteries that can be recycled is currently very limited." In the process, environmental protection requirements can be ignored, and the regular army has no advantage in bidding."

This kind of recycling chaos needs to be solved urgently, because once the tide of ternary lithium battery retirement comes, the value of metals and materials such as nickel and cobalt will be several times higher than that of lithium iron phosphate batteries, which will cause more intense competition. The relevant person in charge of the Ningde Times believes that if the recycling supervision system is not improved as soon as possible, and the flow of scrapped power batteries is strictly controlled, it will bring many problems such as environmental protection and safety hazards to the scrapping process.

Refined traceability management system urgently needs to be established

According to SNE, an investigation agency for secondary batteries and electric vehicles, China's power battery retired capacity will reach about 25 GWh by 2020, and by 2025, China's power battery retired capacity will reach 90 GWh. Due to the skyrocketing prices of lithium and cobalt, international market research institutions predict that the global power battery recycling industry will reach 12.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2025 and 18.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2030. Among them, China will become the largest power battery recycling market.

Industry insiders predict that the high-nickel ternary lithium battery, which is most "coveted" by the industry, will enter a period of concentrated obsolescence in 2022, and the power battery recycling industry will also face real challenges.

In the recycling link where the chaos is the most concentrated, the establishment of a battery traceability mechanism and the meticulous management of each battery has become the industry's call. At present, new energy car companies have been exploring. For example, Weimar Motors previously disclosed that it plans to establish traceability coding rules for power batteries, using a unified battery code to finely track the flow of each power battery. In addition, companies such as BAIC New Energy, Weilai and other companies are also exploring the refinement of battery management.