Metallurgy / Chemicals / Rubber & Plastics

According to forecasts, by 2025, my country’s cumulative decommissioning of power batteries will be about 116GWh (approximately 890,000 tons). In 2025, the cumulative cascade utilization of decommissioned batteries will be about 65GWh (approximately 500,000 tons), and the amount of direct scrap will reach 230,000 tons. In the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for Circular Economy Development" released on July 7, 2021, power battery recycling is one of the 11 key projects. The work content includes management systems and platforms, promotion of network construction, technological and equipment advancement and support Four key enterprises. At the "2021 China Petrochemical Industry Circular Economy High-end Forum" held recently, experts at the meeting discussed issues related to the recycling of power batteries.

Waste power batteries have environmental risks and safety risks

According to the incomplete statistics of the strategic alliance for technology innovation in the forced recycling of resources, as of the end of 2018, the cumulative amount of power batteries in my country has exceeded 130 GWh; by the end of 2019, the cumulative amount of power batteries has exceeded 190 GWh. According to estimates, by 2020, the total number of retired batteries in my country is about 25GWh (about 200,000 tons), of which the cumulative use of retired batteries is about 14GWh (about 110,000 tons), and the amount of direct scrap is about 60,000 tons. It is predicted that by 2025, the cumulative amount of decommissioning will be about 116GWh (about 890,000 tons), of which, in 2025, the cumulative cascade utilization of decommissioned batteries will be about 65GWh (about 500,000 tons), and the amount of direct scrap will reach 230,000 tons.

Cao Guoqing, deputy secretary general of the Strategic Alliance of Resource Mandatory Recycling Industry Technology Innovation, believes that because lithium-ion batteries contain metal compounds such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese, and the electrolyte is a fluorine-containing electrolyte, there are certain environmental and safety risks. Waste lithium battery recycling and treatment technology and equipment are imperfect, waste gas and wastewater treatment equipment is not perfect, some enterprises manually dismantle waste lithium batteries, electrolyte volatilization reaction causes a large amount of harmful exhaust gas pollutants and waste water and waste gas pollutants.

Waste lithium ion batteries consist of positive electrode (containing metals or oxides such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, aluminum), negative electrode (containing carbon materials and copper), diaphragm (PP or PE), electrolyte (containing organic fluoride electrolyte, The electrolyte content of a conventional liquid battery is about 20% to 25% by weight), and the battery pack has a high voltage. From a safety perspective, improper disposal of used power batteries has certain safety hazards.

One is the hidden danger of electric shock. The power battery of new energy vehicles has a relatively high rated voltage, and exposure to personnel without protective measures can easily cause electric shock.

The second is the hidden danger of explosion. In the case of an internal or external short circuit of the battery, the positive and negative electrodes will generate a large current and cause high heat, which will cause the positive and negative electrodes to burn.

From the perspective of the ecological environment, waste power batteries pose a threat to the ecological environment and human health.

1. Heavy metal pollution. The positive electrode material of the battery contains heavy metals such as nickel and cobalt, which will cause heavy metal pollution without professional recycling.

2. Once a lithium ion battery is damaged, its electrolyte is an organic and volatile liquid, which reacts with moisture in the air to produce white corrosive and irritating hydrogen fluoride smoke, which will cause exhaust gas pollution.

3. The electrolyte is polluted. The electrolyte solute LiPF6 is a toxic substance and is easy to deliquesce, which will cause fluorine pollution, and the solvent will cause water pollution. It is urgent to establish a standardized waste battery recycling system to realize resource recycling.

There are two main ways of recycling

Luo Yamin, senior project director of Sinochem Consulting, said that China's power battery recycling is mainly divided into two types: cascade utilization and element recycling.

Due to the immaturity of technology and standard business models, the overall cascade utilization is still in the exemplary stage (30%-50% market growth). China Tower is in a leading position in the industry for cascade utilization of lithium batteries. Since 2018, China Tower has begun to fully promote the cascade utilization of power batteries in all 31 provinces and municipalities. The use scenarios are mainly concentrated in base station equipment. Leading domestic electric vehicle companies are also actively carrying out commercialization research on cascade utilization.

In terms of element recovery, the supply of valuable metals for China’s lithium battery cathode materials is constrained by the international market, and extraction through power pool recycling will be an important supplement for Chinese battery material companies to obtain the original. According to statistics, China’s power battery recovery of various elements in 2020 The total volume is about 40,000 tons. In the future, as a large number of power batteries enter the obsolescence cycle, the recycling of elements from power batteries in China will show a rapid growth trend.

Cascade utilization is an intermediate link between new energy vehicles and battery resource utilization, with high technical barriers. Key technologies include discrete integration technology and prediction technology; battery regeneration and element recovery technologies mainly use wet processes in China.

There are five major obstacles to the development of the industry. How can companies win?

Luo Yamin believes that China's power battery recycling industry is still in its infancy. Although the number of domestic companies with power battery recycling, dismantling and reuse qualifications is increasing, the benefits of battery cascade utilization and dismantling and recycling are not optimistic, and the industry is developing. There are five major obstacles: the construction of recycling outlets is in its infancy, the laws and regulations are not perfect, the relevant information is asymmetry, the lack of mature business models, and the technology urgently needs further breakthroughs.

So many development obstacles have created a poor competitive environment: there are a large number of small enterprises or workshops, poor professional capabilities, small recycling scale, low technology level, low recycling efficiency, incomplete qualifications, and high potential safety and environmental risks. There is a competitive advantage in cost.

At present, the decommissioning volume of domestic power batteries is relatively small. The batteries used in cascades in China are mainly lithium iron phosphate batteries, and ternary material batteries are usually directly disassembled and recycled. The lithium battery recycling industry has attracted more and more attention. Companies in the industrial chain of raw materials, batteries, and new energy vehicles are actively deploying, and third-party resource recycling companies have also joined. Luo Yamin predicts that the number of decommissioned power batteries will soon reach a level that cannot be ignored, and companies will gradually intensively invest in battery recycling and build factories and capital purchases. Due to the responsibility mechanism of power battery recycling, as well as the complexity and systemic nature of the technology and mode of battery recycling, strategic cooperation between the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain in this regard is an inevitable trend in the future. In addition, if companies want to win, they also need to improve the recycling network, achieve environmental protection and safety standards, have strong financial strength, and deploy hazardous waste qualifications early.