TU-TESL

• 22

With the expansion of new energy vehicle industry, China has become the largest power battery producer in the world. As a result, the flow direction and recovery of the subsequent waste power battery also caused widespread concern. China is exploring new energy battery recycling management system. Recently, the Minister of industry and information technology said that an extended producer responsibility system will be established for the recycling of new energy vehicle power batteries. Automobile manufacturers need to be responsible for the recycling of batteries when selling new energy models. According to the plan, China's cumulative production and sales of new energy vehicles will reach 5 million in 2020. As the average life of power battery is 5-8 years, according to the prediction of relevant research institutions, China's power battery will usher in a "scrap tide", and the scrap volume will exceed 248000 tons by 2020, about 20 times of the scrap volume in 2016. If these discarded batteries are not properly treated, they will not only cause waste of resources, but also more likely to pollute the environment. How to safely recycle and deal with environmental protection, and how to strengthen the standardized recycling of waste power batteries have become a "worldwide problem" that the industry is generally concerned about. The recycling of power battery is mainly divided into two recycling processes: echelon recycling and disassembly recycling. The performance of power battery will decline with the increase of charging times. When the battery capacity is reduced to less than 80% of the rated capacity, power battery is not suitable for electric vehicles. Echelon utilization refers to the use of retired power batteries in energy storage, distributed photovoltaic power generation, low-speed electric vehicles and other fields to play the reuse value. When the battery cannot be used in echelon, it needs to be disassembled and recycled. Xu Shengming, a researcher at the Institute of nuclear energy and new energy technology of Tsinghua University, believes that there is a huge market for recycling and echelon utilization of waste power battery resources. "At present, it is in the stage of technology accumulation and R & D. In the future, recycling technology and echelon utilization technology innovation is an important embodiment of the competitiveness of enterprises. " Some new energy vehicle enterprises and power battery manufacturers have stepped up the layout of power battery recovery field. A battery cascade utilization, battery harmless treatment and rare and precious metal refining plant have been built in Hebei to facilitate the physical and chemical re purification and reuse of discarded lithium batteries. Ningde times, a power battery enterprise, explores a complete green industrial chain of lithium battery: after the power battery is decommissioned from the automobile, when the battery capacity remains 70% to 80%, it will be put into its battery energy storage system for echelon utilization, which will disassemble the battery and recycle the battery materials. Although some new energy vehicle enterprises have laid out the power battery recycling market, due to the lack of technology and experience, many enterprises choose to give it to the third-party professional recycling power battery party for treatment. GMC Limited by Share Ltd and Dongfeng and other new energy vehicle manufacturers cooperate to solve the problem of power battery recycling. According to Zhang Yuping, deputy general manager of the company, grime has the largest waste battery and waste battery material treatment production line in China. Based on the original battery recovery system, it focuses on the distribution of power battery recovery business. At present, 83 patents have been applied for and 6 national standards have been formulated for the recycling of automotive power batteries. "We extract nickel, cobalt and other metals from waste batteries through the treatment of disassembly, crushing, separation, purification, smelting, etc. for resource utilization, so as to realize the recycling of power battery materials from waste batteries to new batteries." Zhang said. According to Xu Shengming, cobalt, nickel, lithium and other raw materials needed for power batteries are very important strategic resources. At present, 80% of cobalt and 70% of lithium and nickel resources in China depend on each other. "China's Cobalt resources are relatively poor. The production of cobalt is less than several thousand tons, but the use of cobalt is tens of thousands of tons, so it basically depends on imports. The new energy automobile industry is developing rapidly, and cobalt has been in short supply. " Said Xu Shengming. Greenland has the world's largest recycling base of used batteries and cobalt nickel tungsten resources. "By mining 'urban mines', the company recovers 5000 tons of cobalt every year, more than the amount of cobalt mined in China." Zhang said that with the expansion of power battery production in the future, the source of cobalt metal will mainly come from the recycling field. At the same time, Zhang Yuping pointed out that at present, the amount of waste power batteries in China is still small, the recycling channels and recycling system are not mature, and the treatment and disposal of waste power batteries are still in the stage of market and technical cultivation. In terms of power battery recovery, transportation, dismantling, echelon utilization, material recycling and harmless treatment, it is also necessary to increase investment to explore the business model, speed up the breakthrough of technical problems, and achieve relevant results as soon as possible, so as to cope with the continuous growth of waste power battery in the future. From December 1 this year, the specification for the recycling and dismantling of automotive power batteries will be officially implemented, which is the first national standard on the recycling of power batteries proposed by the Ministry of industry and information technology of China. It is clearly pointed out that the recycling and dismantling enterprises should have relevant qualifications. The power battery recycling policy support is expected to increase, which also gives the market more confidence. Zheng mianping, academician of Chinese Academy of engineering, thinks that the waste power battery has remarkable resource, and effective recycling has both economic and environmental significance. "Compared with the mining production of raw materials, metal recycling is much better, and has great advantages in energy conservation and emission reduction. Therefore, the recycling of power batteries is related to the construction of low-carbon economy and environmental friendly issues. It is imperative for the state to vigorously promote the recycling of power batteries." Said Zheng mianping.