Time:2024.12.23Browse:0
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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