It is worth noting that these scrapped electric vehicle power batteries
have not completely lost their use value. They can also be used in energy
storage equipment according to different battery capacities, and put into
commercial residential energy storage stations, electric vehicle charging energy
storage stations and telecommunications base stations. and other places. This
method of extending the service life of power batteries, that is, echelon
utilization, is also one of the two major directions of the power battery
recycling industry.
Although as early as July 2012, my country's "Energy Saving and New Energy
Automobile Industry Development Plan (2012~2020)" proposed to formulate
management methods for power battery recycling and establish a tiered
utilization and recycling management system. However, nearly six years later,
many industry insiders are still not optimistic when it comes to cascade
utilization technology.
“When the capacity of the power batteries carried in new energy vehicles
declines to about 80%, they will be scrapped. However, the power batteries that
are now entering the scrap wave belong to 2012 and early 2013. In terms of
energy storage capacity, they themselves were shortcomings at that time, and
even some The initial capacity of new batteries cannot reach 100%. After
decaying to less than 80% of the capacity, the voltage may become unstable, so
the primary challenge faced by tiered utilization is performance stability."
Yiwei Lithium Energy (300014, SZ) Yigao Guan told the "Daily Economic News"
reporter.
Even if the performance stability problem can be solved, the executive
bluntly stated that the proposition of echelon utilization is not realistic at
the moment. “First of all, the scale of energy storage batteries is relatively
large, usually requiring hundreds of kilowatts or even megawatts, but the
average battery capacity of a new energy vehicle is 30 kilowatt hours, which
means that the connection between the two requires a battery pack. There’s an
issue of consistency.”
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In addition, the diversity of upstream battery manufacturers is another
challenge facing echelon utilization.
According to data released by China High-Tech Industry Research and
Development Co., Ltd., as of the end of 2016, there were 150 power battery
companies in my country. "The materials, formulas, specifications and structures
of power batteries from different manufacturers are also different, resulting in
a large number of battery models and relatively scattered output, which brings
difficulty to echelon utilization." said Wang Nan, director of the echelon
utilization research office of the AVIC Lithium Battery Technology Research
Institute.
It is understood that the echelon utilization process requires each
scrapped battery to be inspected, reclassified, and regrouped. This is one of
the reasons why the wide variety of battery categories has become a major
challenge.
Dismantling and recycling face technical difficulties
The roads for echelon utilization are not smooth. A reporter from "Daily
Economic News" investigated and found that there are also unspeakable secrets in
dismantling and recycling technology, another major direction of the power
battery recycling industry.
According to a research report published by the High-Tech Industry Research
Institute, there are currently three processes for power battery disassembly and
recycling: dry process, wet process, and biological recycling. The first two
recycling processes are relatively mature and can be suitable for industrial
applications. The latter one Still in the laboratory stage.
It is understood that no matter which process, the core technology lies in
the disassembly of battery cells. The battery core accounts for 36% of the cost
of the power battery. At the same time, the cost of the cathode material rich in
nickel, cobalt, manganese and other metal elements in the battery core accounts
for 45%. Through raw material recycling, nickel, cobalt, manganese and other
metal elements can achieve 95% of the cost. The recovery rate is above 70%,
while the recovery rate of lithium element is also above 70%.
“Dismantling and recycling is of great significance to building a closed
loop of the industrial chain. In theory, battery cells can be recycled through
technical processes to produce nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium salts, and
even further produce ternary cathode materials and precursors, which can be
directly used in lithium batteries. Battery cell manufacturing." said an
executive from a renewable resource recycling company in Chongqing who did not
want to be named.
In fact, some people in the industry during the interview believed that
echelon utilization is not "recycling" in the strict sense. "Echelon utilization
belongs to the category of secondary utilization. There is basically no
technical breakthrough in the final decomposition and purification recycling
work." The above-mentioned. the person in charge said.
It is understood that the core technology of the power battery recycling
industry lies in how to use chemical solvents with appropriate formulas to
extract or extract the active ingredients and re-make them into battery raw
materials for recycling. The formula is also the commercial secret of power
battery companies. As a new energy vehicle manufacturer and a third-party
recycling organization, it is difficult to grasp.
At the same time, there are many types of power batteries. Different types
of batteries have different manufacturing and designs, different series and
parallel grouping forms, different service and use times, different application
models and working conditions, etc. This also directly leads to the fact that
even battery production Manufacturers are also unable to master the secrets
related to the recycling technology of all scrapped batteries on the market.
It is difficult to mention the scale effect in the short term
For enterprises, profitability is the main factor for enterprises to make
relevant strategic plans.
However, a reporter from "Daily Economic News" found in the investigation
that for most companies, laying out the power battery recycling industry is
"preparing for a rainy day."
"It is still difficult for the industry to achieve scale effects. Before
this year, the power batteries of new energy vehicles have not yet entered the
end-of-life period, and the batteries available for recycling are relatively
limited, so it is difficult for companies to achieve batch recycling." Ouyang
Mingzhi, GEM's Secretary of the Board of Directors express.
It is understood that the types of power batteries currently widely used on
the market include lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganate batteries, ternary
batteries, etc.
"From an economic perspective, it is difficult to make money by dismantling
and recycling lithium iron phosphate and lithium manganate batteries. At
present, our profitability is not as good as that of some small manufacturers."
The above-mentioned executive of the Chongqing Renewable Resources Recycling
Company said, "Small companies When dismantling and recycling, manufacturers
only separate the battery cells to obtain positive and negative electrode
sheets, then crush and sort them to recycle copper, aluminum and battery
materials. However, they basically do not perform the last step of precious
metal refining process, because only in this way can they guarantee profits.
.”
It is understood that the recovery cost of extracting valuable metals such
as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and rare earth elements from battery cells is
high. A research report from the China Electric Vehicles Association of 100
shows that the cost of recycling one ton of used lithium iron phosphate
batteries using the most widely used wet method is about 8,500 yuan, while the
revenue from precious metal recycled materials is only about 8,100 yuan,
resulting in a loss of 400 yuan.
Ouyang Mingzhi said that compared with lithium iron phosphate and lithium
manganate batteries, the dismantling and recycling of ternary power batteries
can better protect profits under the existing technology.
According to Zhidian Automobile, the value of materials extracted from one
ton of ternary power waste batteries is about 37,000 yuan, and the recycling
cost exceeds 20,000 yuan. In theory, there is a profit of 17,000 yuan. "As the
prices of upstream raw materials cobalt and nickel continue to rise, the value
of extracted materials will also rise further." said the above-mentioned
executive of the Chongqing Renewable Resources Company.
However, the reality is that the scrappage period of ternary power
batteries has not yet come. According to report data released by Zhiyan
Consulting, the market share of ternary power batteries in the domestic market
in 2015 was about 25%. Many industry insiders also said that the first
concentrated production period of the ternary power battery production line will
also be around 2015.
However, the future market is still full of room for imagination. According
to statistics, in the first ten months of 2017, the proportion of ternary
batteries has exceeded 50%; and large lithium iron phosphate battery companies
including CATL, BYD, Guoxuan High-Tech and other companies have begun to
increase the production capacity of ternary lithium batteries.
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