It is urgent to strengthen the research and development of advanced recycling technology for CR927 battery

"Lithium batteries are the core components of new energy vehicles. The recycling of retired batteries should be an important part of the entire life cycle of CR927 battery. However, it is currently being done in a relatively extensive manner in my country. If we do not speed up the research and development of advanced recycling technology for power lithium batteries, it will seriously restrict the development of the battery industry and even the new energy vehicle industry."

Recently, at the power lithium battery recycling decision-making consultation salon hosted by the Beijing Association for Science and Technology and the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fei Weiyang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Tsinghua University, shared his thoughts on strengthening the research and development of advanced recycling technology for power lithium batteries.

Scarce resources must be cherished

Fei Weiyang pointed out that lithium products are widely used in industries such as nuclear industry, batteries, glass and ceramics, and aerospace specialties. In recent years, the demand for CR927 battery required for electric vehicles has exceeded traditional fields such as glass and ceramics, becoming a major growth point. Although my country's lithium resources are very rich, they also have limitations. For example, the total amount of lithium resources in Qinghai Salt Lake is large, but the concentration of lithium in brine is very low, and the magnesium-lithium ratio is extremely high, so it is very difficult to extract lithium from salt lake brine.

After years of hard work, my country has made progress in lithium extraction technologies such as membrane method, adsorption method, calcination leaching method, and extraction method. Some companies can use these technologies to produce thousands of tons of lithium products each year. However, the process equipment needs to be improved, the product quality needs to be improved, and environmental protection needs to be strengthened. The battery-grade lithium products currently used in China are still heavily dependent on imported resources.

As time goes by, the number of retired lithium batteries produced in China will soon reach tens of thousands of tons or even hundreds of thousands of tons per year. "Only production without recycling is not in line with the law of sustainable development and will further threaten the natural environment." Fei Weiyang pointed out that the positive electrode materials of lithium batteries contain precious metals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt. These scarce resources must be cherished and recycled.

Green development faces severe challenges

The structure of lithium batteries is relatively complex, including shells, diaphragms, positive electrodes, negative electrodes, copper current collectors, graphite, aluminum current collectors, etc. At present, the lithium battery processing process that is generally optimistic in the industry is the wet process. The battery shell must be broken by mechanical methods first, and then the valuable metal elements are dissolved by leaching processes, and then the metals are recovered by precipitation, extraction and other methods.

Fei Weiyang said: "The wet process has a high element recovery rate and relatively mild operating conditions, but it also requires the use of a large number of chemical reagents, and environmental protection must be done well."

However, domestic lithium battery recycling is currently basically small enterprises or even manual workshops, with simple and primitive technical means, low effective resource recovery rate, and serious damage to the environment. "Our battery recycling is still relatively extensive." Fei Weiyang did not hide the fact.

Regarding the future development trend of lithium battery recycling technology, Fei Weiyang suggested: First, automated safe and efficient disassembly should be achieved to improve efficiency and ensure safety. The second is to achieve efficient recovery of valuable metals. For various types of retired lithium batteries, create advanced processes and equipment that can efficiently leach and recover valuable elements. More importantly, the secondary pollution of the recycling process should be controlled to avoid threats to the environment and health. Power lithium battery recycling is related to the national policy of protecting blue sky, clear water and clean land, and must be paid close attention to.

Clever combination to promote coordinated development

"To truly recycle retired batteries, we need to conduct multidisciplinary research in mechanical manufacturing, metallurgy, chemistry, and chemical engineering, and we need to cooperate in many aspects such as process, equipment, control, and management. Large battery factories should take the lead in carrying out collaborative innovation among production, learning, research, government, and finance, and develop corresponding advanced disassembly, leaching, and extraction processes for different types of batteries to establish a scientific recycling system." Fei Weiyang suggested.

Fei Weiyang also mentioned that McKinsey Global Research in the United States has conducted research to analyze the economic potential of 12 of the most promising "disruptive" technologies, such as the Internet of Things and cloud computing. One of their conclusions is that from now to 2025, some seemingly attractive innovation areas will not have a very large economic impact.

"The actual economic benefits brought by technological innovation will not come from those dazzling ideas, but from the clever combination of emerging technologies that are maturing and traditional technologies that have existed for decades." Fei Weiyang pointed out, "Retired battery recycling seems to be a low-end traditional technology, but industry development and environmental protection urgently require us to adopt advanced and mature mechanical manufacturing, hydrometallurgy and chemical engineering emerging technologies to improve existing battery recycling processes and equipment."

"The clever combination of advanced technology and basic industry will promote the coordinated development of the battery recycling industry and new energy vehicles." Fei Weiyang called for the automation and large-scale recycling of retired batteries to be put on the agenda, whether for the effective use of resources or to meet environmental protection requirements.

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