At present, China's new energy vehicles are growing explosively, and an earlier batch of power batteries have also entered the retirement period. According to public data, the cumulative decommissioning amount of power batteries in China will be about 200,000 tons in 2020, and it will reach 780,000 tons in five years. 10 years later, a billion-dollar blue ocean market will be born.
Attracted by the "big cake", more and more car manufacturers, battery factories, third-party power battery recycling enterprises and even a large amount of capital have entered the bureau. The problem is that the lack of recycling channels, key technologies, relevant standards and regulatory measures still hinders the healthy and orderly development of the industry, and it is urgent to improve the power battery recycling system.
Recycling channel "show plug"
New energy vehicles are accelerating to enter the market. According to the data of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2020, the sales volume of new energy vehicles will be 6.5438+0.36 million. In the first quarter of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 533,000 and 565.438+0.5 million respectively, up 3.2 times and 2.8 times respectively. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently announced that the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in China will exceed 5.5 million in 2020.
At the same time, the decommissioning of power batteries has also entered the blowout period. According to the data of China Automotive Technology and Research Center, the cumulative decommissioning amount of power batteries in China is about 200,000 tons in 2020 and 780,000 tons in 2025.
It is understood that the power batteries of mainstream electric vehicles on the market currently include lithium iron phosphate batteries, ternary lithium batteries, lead-acid batteries and nickel-hydrogen batteries. If the power battery cannot be effectively recycled, it will cause great environmental harm and waste of resources.
"Take lithium iron phosphate battery as an example. Once the electrolyte of unrecycled lithium battery leaks, it will cause toxic and corrosive electrolyte to flow into the natural environment, which will do harm to human body, soil and water. Ternary lithium batteries are more harmful. Battery materials contain heavy metals such as manganese, cobalt and nickel, which will pollute water and land for 50 years. Carbon and graphite in the anode material will cause dust pollution to the air. " Professor Yan Li from the School of Environment of China Renmin University said.
In addition to protecting the environment, recycling discarded batteries is also an important way to reduce battery costs and ensure the supply of raw materials.
Under normal circumstances, the effective service life of power battery is about 5-8 years, and the battery capacity will gradually decrease during cyclic charging and discharging. When the battery capacity drops below 80%, it can be retired for recycling. Retired batteries can be gradually used in low-speed electric vehicles and energy storage fields. When the battery capacity drops below 20%, they can be disassembled and scrapped.
However, most scrapped batteries did not enter the "regular" recycling channels, causing secondary pollution, disrupting market order and worrying the industry.
In recent years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has published two lists of enterprises that meet the industrial norms and conditions for the comprehensive utilization of waste power batteries in new energy vehicles, and ***27 power battery recycling enterprises have entered the "regular army" white list.
Wei Bao, general manager of Huayou Cycle, once said, "By 2020, the cumulative amount of battery scrap is estimated to reach 200,000 tons, but there is not such a large amount in the actual recycling process, and less than 30% of the scrapped batteries flow into the head enterprises."
"At present, the retired power batteries are more scattered in the hands of various subjects, and some are reversed to earn the difference." A staff member of a battery recycling company said. Xinhua News Agency recently reported that there are hidden risks in the recycling of used batteries. Under the influence of multiple factors, a large number of power batteries did not flow into the formal channels, but were bought by some unqualified and highly polluting small factories at high prices, causing secondary environmental pollution hazards.
According to the research report of Chuancai Securities, the standard-compliant investment and environmental protection investment of regular power battery recycling enterprises account for a lot of costs, while the investment of substandard enterprises and small workshops in this respect is almost zero, so they can buy batteries at higher prices, resulting in unfair competition in the industry. In addition, because the after-sale ownership of electric vehicles belongs to consumers, there are no relevant laws and regulations requiring compulsory recycling of power batteries in China at present, and the recycling system of power batteries is not perfect, so there are problems such as reluctance to recycle and difficulty in collecting.
Technology and standards become a problem.
In addition to the channel, "imperfect key technologies such as disassembly and residual value evaluation in the recycling process and inconsistent standards are also the core constraints that hinder the formation of a benign closed loop in the power battery recycling industry chain." Respondents engaged in research on the industrial chain of new energy vehicles said.
It is understood that there are two main steps in the recycling process of power batteries, namely, step-by-step utilization and disassembly and recycling.
Everbright Securities Research Report pointed out that it is difficult to estimate the measurement standard of battery residual value. There are many definitions of power battery health, including the definition of capacity attenuation, the definition of residual discharge, the definition of residual cycle and the definition of internal resistance, so it is difficult for policy makers to measure the standard of battery residual value.
It is also difficult to unify technical standards. The research report also said that an important recycling method of lithium iron phosphate battery is ladder utilization, and factors such as ladder utilization mode and safety are puzzling the formulation of standards. The standard is too high, the cascade utilization market will shrink, and the standard is too low, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the cascade utilization market.
In the process of dismantling, Yan Li said, "Power batteries are different from all other energy storage batteries, and professional enterprises are required to disassemble the modules, regardless of the dismantling site, equipment, personnel and safety." At present, domestic enterprises have limited technical reserves, and key technologies and equipment such as ecological design of power batteries, cascade utilization and efficient extraction of valuable metals need to be broken through.
What are the reasons behind these restrictions?
"The main problem is battery standardization. The battery specifications adopted by various OEMs are not uniform, which leads to the incompatibility of recycling technology and equipment and increases the obstacles to recycling. " Zhang Xiaoliang, an auto analyst, said.
It is worth mentioning that Zhou Zerun, a technical expert of Weilai Battery Operation Department, expressed three "no" views in depth, namely "invisible", "unavailable" and "not easy to use". "Invisible" means that the power battery is a data-driven business, and it is difficult for enterprises to see all the data; "Can't get it" is a property right issue. The regulatory authorities require the OEM to bear the main responsibility, but the battery is in the hands of the users. If you can't confirm the right, you won't get the battery; "Poor use" is the result of not seeing the data and not getting the battery, and the poor industrial chain makes it difficult to land.
Policy support continued to increase.
"It is necessary to clarify specific top-level guidelines, relevant regulatory regulations and subsidy measures, promote the establishment of a top-down power battery recycling management system, promote the upgrading of key technologies, and accelerate the orderly development of the power battery recycling industry." Zhang Xiaoliang thinks.
In fact, in recent years, policy support has been increasing.
From July 2065438 to July 2008, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Interim Provisions on the Traceability Management of Power Battery Recycling for New Energy Vehicles, requiring the establishment of a traceability management platform to collect information on the whole process of power battery production, sales, use, scrapping, recycling and utilization, and to monitor the performance of recycling responsibilities by all links.
5438+065438+2020 10 In the Notice on Printing and Distributing the Development Plan of New Energy Automobile Industry (200212035), the State Council proposed to promote the development of the whole value chain of power batteries, improve the recycling system of power batteries, cascade utilization and recycling, and encourage * * to build recycling channels. Establish and improve the management system of power battery transportation, storage, maintenance, safety inspection, scrapping and recycling, and strengthen the supervision of the whole life cycle.
At the National "Two Sessions" in 20021year, "Accelerating the Construction of Power Battery Recycling System" first appeared in the "Government Work Report".
On April 7, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology once again stressed that it would speed up the review or drafting of eight projects, including the Measures for the Management of Power Battery Recycling for New Energy Vehicles.
Xin Zeng, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will increase its support, study and formulate supporting policies and measures conducive to the recycling of power batteries, strengthen the connection with existing support policies, and actively encourage and guide social capital to participate in the recycling of power batteries. Automobile production enterprises should also implement producer responsibility, speed up the construction of recycling service outlets, and all relevant enterprises should earnestly fulfill their responsibilities to ensure the effective recycling of power batteries.
The increasing policy support and huge market space have attracted many enterprises to lay out one after another. According to Tianyancha data, up to now, there are 242 enterprises in China whose business scope is "power battery recycling", of which 85 will be added in 2020.
For example, Blue Valley Smart Energy, a subsidiary of BAIC Group, which is engaged in power battery replacement and cascade utilization, has established a battery recycling system with ToB travel enterprises as the main body and ToC recycling network as the supplement, in-depth cooperation with travel enterprises, battery factories and dismantling factories. At the same time, with the help of BAIC new energy vehicle data, the recovered batteries can be quickly evaluated, and the data link and value chain of the whole life cycle of power batteries can be opened up. Up to now, Blue Valley Smart Energy has recovered 360MWh of batteries.