Green vehicle battery challenge
China, the world’s largest NEV producer, searches for new recycling modes
As the market for new energy vehicles (NEVs) continues to boom, China is now the largest NEV battery producer in the world. But that opportunity has come with a challenge: how should the country responsibly recycle the growing number of redundant batteries?
China is still exploring regulatory and management systems for battery recycling. Industry and Information Technology Minister Miao Wei said in November that the country will establish an extended producer responsibility regime, which will in turn make car manufacturers responsible for recycling.
China’s total production and sales of NEVs is expected to reach 5 million by 2020, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufactures.
As the average lifespan of power batteries is about five to eight years, China will see the amount of used batteries hit about 250,000 tons in 2020, almost 20 times that of 2016, according to a report by the Gao Gong Industry Institute, a Shenzhenbased research firm.
Experts have pointed out that scrapped batteries, if not properly dealt with, will be a waste of resources as well as a source of pollution. Therefore, the need for an environmentally-sustainable and cost-efficient recycling method has become a universal concern in the NEV industry.
Xu Shengming, a researcher at Tsinghua University’s Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, told the Xinhua News Agency that there are two main recycling paths.
“One is hierarchical recycling. When the battery is no longer usable due to its declining capacity, it can be reutilized in alternative energy storage stations, low-speed electric vehicles and distributed power generations. The other path is to dismantle and reuse components,” he said.
The recycling and reutilization of batteries will soon become a huge market.
“At present, we are in a stage of technical accumulation and research. In the future, recycling technology and technological innovation will be the core competitiveness for companies,” says Xu.
Companies taking initiative
Some NEV companies and battery suppliers have already taken action. BAIC BJEV, the new energy vehicle arm of domestic automaker BAIC Motor, has set up a company focusing on the sustainable treatment of waste batteries and precious metals in North China’s Hebei Province.
Meanwhile, battery maker CATL, based in Ningde, East China’s Fujian Province, is also exploring a green chain.
According to a statement the company sent to the Xinhua News Agency, when a battery’s capacity is less than 80 percent of its rated capacity, it is taken to the company’s battery energy storage system. After hierarchical recycling, they will be dismantled and the components will be recycled for new batteries.
Although some NEV manufacturers are tackling the issue themselves, others with less experience and technology entrust the task to specialist battery recycling companies.
GEM Co, a Shenzhen-based company dedicated to recycling, has cooperated with NEV manufacturers such as BYD and Dongfeng.
GEM deputy general manager Zhang Yuping says the company has the largest scrapped battery processing line in China. So far, it has applied for 83 patents related to battery recycling and has been involved in developing six national standards on the reutilization of batteries.
Xu said the raw materials of NEV batteries include cobalt, nickel, lithium and other materials that are very important strategic resources. Currently, China relies on imports for 80 percent of its cobalt and 70 percent of its lithium and nickel.
“The fast development of the NEV industry has broadened the supply gap of cobalt in China,” said Xu.
Zhang noted that GEM has a world-leading recycling base for waste batteries as well as for cobalt, nickel and tungsten resources.
“Through a complicated process of disassembly, fragmentation, separation, purification, smelting and so on, we extract nickel, cobalt and other metals,” Zhang stressed.
GEM already recycles more than 5,000 tons of cobalt annually and Zhang believes recycling will be a main source of cobalt in the future.
However, Zhang admits current recycling channels and systems are not yet mature, with the company continuing to upgrade technology and explore successful models to improve recycling methods.
Government measures
A code for recycling batteries was formally implemented on December 1. Proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it is the first national standard on battery recycling and reutilization, stipulating that recycling and dismantling companies should meet standards.
Zheng Mianping, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes that effective recycling has both economic and environmental benefits.
“Compared with mining raw materials, metal recycling has a great advantage in energy saving and emissions reduction,” said Zheng.
“I think China should adapt a favorable policy toward battery recycling.”