Don't let new energy vehicle batteries become a new source of pollution
1. Recently, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Automobile Market Research Branch of the my country Automobile Dealers Association (the Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Committee, referred to as the Passenger Car Association), said to the public that my country's new energy vehicles will show an explosive rise in 2021, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will reach 20 percent , the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is expected to exceed 15 percent in 2021, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is expected to exceed 20 percent in 2022.
2. However, when my country has become the world's largest new energy vehicle market, the problem of new energy vehicle battery recycling has not been fundamentally resolved.
3. The deposit system of European and American countries can be introduced. When consumers buy a new car, part of the amount is used as a deposit. When the battery is replaced or scrapped, the deposit can only be returned to a designated institution recognized by the state.
According to the data of my country Automotive Technology Research Center, in 2020, the cumulative decommissioning of new energy vehicle power lithium-ion batteries in my country will be about 200,000 tons, and in 2025, the cumulative decommissioning amount will be about 780,000 tons. In 2018, seven ministries and commissions including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the "Interim Measures for the Management of Recycling and Utilization of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", which established the main responsibility of car companies for battery recycling. At the same time, a corresponding big data traceability management platform has also been established. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has also successively announced two batches of companies that meet the "Industry Standard Conditions for Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", a total of 25 companies.
Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
But the heat of the market is obviously higher than the supervision of relevant departments. According to the data of the industrial and commercial information query platform, there are currently about 15,000 companies related to power lithium-ion battery recycling, and 9,435 new companies were added in the first half of this year, an increase of 2,611.2 percent year-on-year.
However, in the recycling system composed of car companies, battery companies, raw material companies, and third-party recycling companies, statistics from multiple sources show that the batteries recovered by car companies and regular recycling companies only account for 10 percent of the total market. -30 percent , at least 70 percent of the batteries are "unknown", and the scale of the "gray industry chain" is amazing.
The reason is that the processing cost of the gray industry chain is low, and the batteries can be recycled at a relatively high price. The sellers who own the batteries have no motivation to actively find a regular company to recycle the battery, and even because of this, there have even been regular recycling companies "reselling" recycled batteries. event.
On the other hand, the current big data traceability management platform cannot compulsorily require the traceability of batteries flowing into the "gray industry chain".
At present, the batteries entering the recycling process are mainly lithium-ion batteries, and the technical difficulty of the processing process is relatively high. Even compliant companies listed on the MIIT's compliance list can have problems. At the beginning of this year, Hunan Bangpu Cycle Technology, a subsidiary of the battery company CATL, had an explosion accident.
The battery of new energy vehicles can not meet the power demand of the car after about 8 years of use, but still retains nearly 80 percent of the remaining capacity, most of which can be made into echelon batteries. my country's iron tower companies are digesting and using echelon batteries in large quantities. However, due to the different models and manufacturers of batteries currently recycled, the specifications are also varied, which not only makes subsequent performance testing and disassembly more difficult, but also increases the cost of cascade utilization.
Most of the companies in the "gray chain" do not have the ability to handle compliance and safety, and most of them simply and rudely dismantle and smash them, and extract the internal precious metals such as cobalt, lithium, manganese, and nickel for secondary sales. In addition to safety issues, environmental pollution is unavoidable.
Research data shows that a 20-gram mobile phone battery can pollute 1 square kilometer of land for about 50 years. Heavy metals in new energy vehicles and lithium hexafluorophosphate in electrolyte are easily hydrolyzed in the air environment to produce phosphorus pentafluoride, hydrogen fluoride, etc. Harmful substances, causing more serious environmental pollution.
In October 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicly solicited opinions on the "Administrative Measures for the Echelon Utilization of New Energy Vehicle Power Batteries (Draft for Comment)", and once again encouraged echelon utilization companies and companies such as new energy vehicle production, power battery production, and scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling. Agreement cooperation, strengthen information sharing, and use existing recycling channels to efficiently recycle waste power batteries for cascade utilization.
In June this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments issued the "Automotive Product Producer Responsibility Extension Pilot Implementation Method", which once again reiterated that car companies should assume the main responsibility for the traceability management of power lithium-ion battery recycling.
In this regard, I believe that the deposit system in European and American countries can be introduced. When consumers buy a new car, part of the amount is used as a deposit. When the battery is replaced or scrapped, the deposit can only be returned to a designated institution recognized by the state. The proof of the deposit can be transferred with the vehicle driving license. The car factories and formal recycling companies involved in this system can partially make profits, while the state can introduce policies to give the former some subsidies.
In addition to regulations, the competent authorities should also accelerate the recycling of new energy vehicle power lithium-ion batteries in terms of policies, technologies, standards, and industries, and improve the recycling system.
