"In the first half of this year, our power recycling company did more than 9,000 tons (batteries), more than the amount of last year. Now the warehouse is full of waste batteries and is expanding production." Recently, in the Greenpeace (Wuhan) urban minerals recycling industrial park, Greenpeace deputy general manager, Wuhan Power Battery Regeneration Technology Company Limited (referred to as "power regeneration"), chairman of the board of directors, Zhang Yuping, to the Shanghai Securities News reporter.

August 1, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization Division held a new energy vehicle power battery comprehensive utilization of the work of the symposium, by the comprehensive utilization of the backbone of the enterprise to introduce the retired power battery recycling, laddering and regeneration of technology research, business model innovation and other situations. The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said at the meeting, will study the development of "new energy vehicle power battery recycling management approach" and industry standards, improve the power battery recycling system, support flexible dismantling, high-efficiency recycling and a number of key technology research and promotion and application, and the continued implementation of the industry standardization and management, to improve the level of recycling and utilization of power batteries.

"Now the market can be said to be very hot, a lot of money pouring in, we all see the hundreds of billions of market size, see the star ocean. But on the other hand, the power battery recycling industry has actually just started, this industry is technically difficult, to be down-to-earth, solid advancement, the whole industry chain synergized to truly realize from green to green." Zhang Yuping said, China's new energy automobile industry has run to the forefront of the world, but the shortage of resources and other issues are also prominent, recycling can make up for the short board of resource shortage.

According to the national power battery traceability platform data analysis, as of the end of March this year, China's recycling enterprises have been resourceful recycling disposal of 64,000 tons of waste power batteries, laddering has been disposed of 7,016 tons of waste power batteries, and in this way, the production of 780MWh laddering products. At the same time, based on the power battery production and sales and life cycle, it is expected that by 2025 China's accumulated power battery decommissioning will reach 1.08 million tons.

Lithium recycling rate has exceeded 90%, resource security has a bottom

From the data provided by a number of enterprises engaged in power battery recycling, the current lithium recycling rate has exceeded 90%. There are predictions that by 2050, relying on lithium resource recycling will be able to meet the demand for lithium salts in the power battery energy storage industry, which will lead to the formation of a self-sufficient lithium resources within the cycle and the situation of zero new mining.

"The recovery rate of nickel-cobalt-manganese in the Bump Cycle has already reached 99.3 percent, and the lithium recovery rate has reached more than 90 percent." At the 2022 World Power Battery Conference held in Yibin, Ningde Times Chairman Zeng Yuchun said that mineral resources are not a bottleneck for industrial development, and the vast majority of materials inside the battery can be recycled. Bump Circulation is a holding subsidiary of Ningde Times and a leading recycling enterprise of used batteries in China.

"From the industry's point of view, the technical problem can be said to have been solved. The Industry Specification Conditions for Comprehensive Utilization of Used Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles (2019 edition) issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stipulates that the recycling rate of regenerated lithium, nickel, and cobalt shall not be less than 85%, 98.5%, and 98.5%. As far as I know, the lithium recycling rate of some leading enterprises has reached 90%." The head of an enterprise engaged in power battery recycling in Jiangxi told reporters.

In 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the first batch of enterprises in line with the "new energy automobile waste power battery comprehensive utilization industry normative conditions" list, Huayou Cobalt, Grimmie, Bump Recycling, Guanghua Science and Technology and Ganzhou Haopeng and other five enterprises were selected, which is also known as the industry as the "white list" or This is also known as the "white list" or "regular army" in the industry. Up to now, there are 47 white-listed enterprises, of which nearly 20 have regeneration qualifications (some of them have multiple qualifications).

According to Zhang Yuping, the cobalt and nickel recycling rate of power regeneration have both reached 99%, and the lithium recycling ratio is currently between 90% and 92%, with the goal of raising it to 95%. Measured by the company's current recovery rate, the regeneration value of a ton of used batteries can reach about 24,000 yuan (at current metal prices), with good economic benefits.

In the view of brokerage researchers, the gradual increase in the recovery rate of high-value metals, the successful operation of the pilot production line of the leading companies, for the replication of the power battery regeneration industry to provide the basis for the expansion of the new energy industry, but also for the sustainable development of the new energy industry to provide a strong guarantee.

On the one hand, power battery recycling also has hard requirements in terms of environmental protection. The heavy metals in the battery cathode material will elevate the PH value of the environment, and improper handling will produce toxic gases. In addition, the power battery contains a variety of metals, electrolyte will be harmful to human health, such as cobalt may lead to gastrointestinal disorders, deafness, myocardial ischemia and other symptoms.

On the other hand, with the demand for lithium batteries growing dramatically, the shortage of resources has become a major constraint on industrial development. It is projected that by 2030, the global demand for lithium will reach 1.79 million tons/year, about four times the current global capacity, coupled with the price of raw materials for batteries is also gradually rising, the recycling of battery materials is very favorable to reduce the cost of new energy vehicles.

In this context, renewable resources can provide long-term protection. The Yangtze River Securities related research report that the lithium, nickel and cobalt obtained through recycling are expected to account for 31.4%, 26.8% and 29.3% of the demand for the same period in 2030, respectively. YEEO think tank even made a lithium resources strategic planning "trilogy" prediction: 2030 to realize the "lithium peak", 2040 to realize the lithium self-sufficiency, 2050 to realize the lithium internal cycle. That is, by 2040, China's lithium resources will realize the domestic mining and use of self-sufficiency. By 2050, relying only on the recovery of lithium resources, can meet the demand for lithium salt in the power battery energy storage industry, and finally form a self-sufficient lithium resources internal cycle and zero new mining situation.

15 minutes to complete the detection and screening, the start of the ladder utilization

The market prospect of the ladder utilization is extremely broad, but is still in the commercial exploration period. Due to the current standard system and business model is not clear, it is expected that the next 2 to 3 years will still be in the policy specification and commercialization of the exploration period, 2025 is expected to usher in a substantial growth.

Resource recycling is undoubtedly an exciting thing. However, unlike the public's usual perception, in the view of professionals, regeneration is only the last step after the battery is "used up", and before that, it is necessary to carry out as much as possible the gradient utilization, so as to make the best use of the material, "Otherwise it is not energy-saving, nor is it environmentally friendly."

Zhang Yuping said, for example, a good athlete, with age, may not be able to participate in the top events, but there is no need to be idle, but also can do a lot of other work. "Batteries are the same, we have gone to so much trouble to make the battery so good, use it once and do not want it? It's perfectly fine to use it again in a different scenario."

Tier utilization refers to the process of carrying out the necessary inspection and testing, classification, disassembly, battery repair or reorganization of used power batteries into a gradient product, so that they can be applied to other areas. According to the degree of decay of the battery capacity, generally divided into battery pack use (battery capacity greater than or equal to 80%), battery pack step-by-step utilization (battery capacity at 60% to 80%) and single battery step-by-step utilization (available capacity decay to 20% to 60%) and other three stages.

On the one hand, the difficulty is obvious. First of all, decommissioned batteries can still be used or not? This requires identification judgment. Compared to new batteries, retired batteries have a large difference between the safety and performance of the battery, the value of the state of the battery needs to be judged before the gradient utilization, and to assess its remaining life and safety. Secondly, how to use? Behind this also need battery sorting technology, reorganization technology and more advanced battery management technology and other support. Again, how can quality and safety be guaranteed in the face of less consistent battery packs? Before large-scale industrial production, these issues need to be thoroughly resolved.

On the other hand, the market prospects for the utilization of laddering is extremely broad, such as in construction machinery, low-speed vehicles, forklifts, energy storage power stations, UPS, and even including agricultural machinery, drones and other segments can be applied.

The successful operation of some demonstration projects has also increased the confidence of laddering practitioners. In July last year, 100 SF electric tricycles in Nanjing participated in the lead-acid battery-for-lithium battery test program conducted by SF Group in cooperation with Huayou Cobalt. The test results show that, compared with ordinary lead-acid batteries, lithium batteries are lighter in weight, stronger in power, longer in range and faster in charging, and have been safely driven for 500,000 kilometers.

According to the relevant person in charge of Huayou Cobalt, in recent years, the company has built a service model of "urban intelligent energy Internet laddering utilization", and is actively promoting the application of laddered lithium batteries in the fields of Internet of Things (IoT), smart city, new energy storage, including 5G unmanned logistics vehicles, takeaway or express delivery electric vehicles, urban sanitation electric vehicles, Communication power backup products, cold storage power backup, database power backup, storage and charging integration and other application scenarios, which have been operated in more than 60 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Demand guides market supply and incentivizes technological progress. "Now we can complete the test in 15 minutes, according to the traditional method, each electric core will take 3 hours." Zhang Yuping introduced, based on the power battery big data collected in the early stage, the company tried to build a number of data models, through the neural network to automatically discriminate and identify, improve detection efficiency. Through the "physical examination" of the electric core, will be the same specifications with the "small partners", be reassembled into a new battery pack, for secondary utilization.

The huge economic value is the driving force behind the industry's progress. Bao Wei, assistant president of Huayou Cobalt and general manager of Huayou Recycling, said the recycling industry has reduced the cost of lithium batteries by more than 20 percent over their entire life cycle through laddering and recycling.

"The laddering utilization is still in the commercial exploration period for the time being." An interview with a brokerage researcher, due to the current standard system and business model is not yet clear, the industry is expected to the next 2 to 3 years will remain in the policy specification and commercialization of the exploration period, 2025 is expected to usher in a substantial growth.

Innovation to lead industrial upgrading, from green to green

New energy automobile industry, China has a first-mover advantage. In the power battery industry, China's production capacity accounts for more than half of the world's production capacity, the scale advantage is obvious, and the technology is also in the global leading. If the recycling and reuse of this link to do a good job, you can form a complete cycle of industrial chain closed loop, the real realization of the green to green.

The industry has a broad outlook, the demonstration effect of laddering utilization has gradually gained recognition, and regeneration technology has made breakthroughs, but the problems faced behind the scenes cannot be ignored. "From the construction of the recycling system, to the dismantling and laddering utilization, and finally to the regeneration, several big links, it can be said that are still in the beginning stage." Interviews with industry insiders said that in the past two years by the lithium upstream raw material prices, some see the "money" of the capital influx, "can not be hasty, but the need to do a good job of industrial ecology."

The reporter synthesized the views of a number of interviewees and found that the pressure or impetus for industrial development comes from at least three aspects.

First, overseas has introduced the corresponding regulations. The EU's new battery law was formally implemented on January 1, 2022, by 2030, the new battery law requires battery production Co (cobalt), Ni (nickel), Li (lithium) regenerative materials used in the proportion shall not be less than 12%, 4%, 4%; by 2035, Co, Ni, Li regenerative materials used in the proportion shall not be less than 20%, 12%, 10%.

"In this context, Chinese battery companies must also increase the use of recycled materials, strengthen the corresponding supply chain construction, or will be blocked out." The relevant person in charge of YWL said.In August 2021, YWL signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on the Directed Recycling Supply of 10,000 tons of Recycled Nickel Products with Greenmax. Since 2024, Green America commitment to Yiwei lithium can supply more than 10,000 tons of recycled output nickel products per year, the cooperation period since the beginning of the product supply continues for 10 years, and can be based on the need to increase the number and the extension of the period of cooperation.

Secondly, from the point of view of the current situation of the domestic industry, primary resources can not meet the needs of production. Statistics show that China's nickel and cobalt resources reserves are relatively small, and China's huge new energy vehicle market does not match, more than 90% of the current nickel and cobalt resources still need to be imported. Although lithium reserves relative to nickel, cobalt resources are more adequate, but facing the constraints of lithium mining difficulty, low grade ore and other factors, lithium resource capacity is limited, resulting in more than 70% of the current lithium resources still need to be imported.

In addition, by the price of raw materials and other factors, in recent years, a large influx of domestic capital into the power battery recycling industry, not only prone to waste of resources, but also destroy the ecology. According to statistics, in 2021, China's power battery recycling related business registration grew to 24,000.GGII data show that in 2021, the theoretical decommissioning of lithium batteries amounted to 512,000 tons, the actual recovery of waste lithium batteries 299,000 tons, which means that a large number of waste batteries into the hands of small and medium-sized enterprises do not have the ability to deal with.

"The industry is not fully developed before it starts to 'implode'." Sun Fengchun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said recently that it is important to guard against the problems of returning but not collecting, collecting but not using, and collecting but abusing.

"We must sink our teeth into solid research and development, and really upgrade our technology to push the industry forward." Zhang Yuping said. According to him, power regeneration currently gathered more than 10 doctors, around the power battery ladder utilization and regeneration and other technical research. "Take lithium as an example, if the recycling rate can be increased by one percentage point, the regeneration value of each ton (of used batteries) can be increased by several thousand dollars."

And the further improvement of the recycling rate, but also need the whole industrial chain of synergies, such as from the battery design to take into account the subsequent recycling problems. August 3, China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance held a "Power Battery Manufacturing Easy Recycling Technology Seminar" in Wuhan, dozens of enterprises in the industry chain **** with the same The seminar was held in Wuhan on August 3, 2010, and dozens of enterprises in the industry chain **** with the discussion of the concept of recycling implanted in the battery design and manufacturing and other production processes, to enhance the consistency of the product and reduce the difficulty of recycling.

"In the new energy automobile industry, China has a first-mover advantage. In the power battery industry, China's production capacity accounts for more than half of the world's production capacity, the scale advantage is obvious, the technology is also in the global leading. If the recycling and reuse of this link to do a good job, you can form a complete cycle of industrial chain closed loop, the real realization of the green from green to green." Experts interviewed by the reporter said that the recycling of power battery materials is the key to promote China's new energy industry from a new energy industry power to a new energy industry power, as long as the standardized and orderly development, the prospect is bright and spacious.

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