Power battery is known as "the heart of new energy vehicles", run to a certain mileage, its range will be greatly reduced. "Can't run" power battery still have value? How should they be disposed of? With the explosive growth of the new energy vehicle industry, power battery recycling has become the focus of public attention.
As an important part of the new energy battery industry, in the Wuhan metropolitan area, there have been many companies layout battery recycling market.
Putting "decommissioned" batteries into energy storage cabinets for recycling
The energy storage cabinet is the core equipment of Wuhan Power Renewable Energy Company's battery light storage and charging integration demonstration project. Reporter Lv Shiwen photo
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology regulations, from 2016 onwards, passenger car manufacturers to implement the battery, motor and other core components to provide 8 years or 120,000 kilometers of warranty. 2024, China ushered in the first batch of power batteries "de-insurance".
China Automotive Engineering Society predicts that in 2030, China's decommissioned power battery will reach 3.5 million tons, power battery recycling market size is expected to reach 140.6 billion yuan.
"In the face of hundreds of billions of blue ocean market, the formation of stable power battery recycling channels, is an important factor that affects the enterprises to take the lead in 'eating' the dividends." Wuhan Power Battery Regeneration Technology Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Wuhan Power Regeneration Company), deputy general manager Bei Chuanyu said in an interview with the reporter, at present, the company has established a directed recycling partnership with more than 750 vehicle manufacturers and battery factories and other industrial chain enterprises at home and abroad, and 140 recycling outlets are arranged across the country, and the development of the "Grimm Recycling The company has also developed a small program called "Green Recycling", which allows the public to choose to go to the network or wait for the door-to-door recycling method.
How are the recycled power batteries utilized? The gradient utilization and recycling are the two mainstream ways of "turning waste into treasure".
Industry insiders, the gradient utilization is the better performance of decommissioned power battery dismantling, restructuring, downgrading applications in the power demand is not high scene, such as low-speed vehicles, engineering vehicles, energy storage cabinets, solar street lamps and so on.
Entering the Wuhan Park of Grimme, the new energy storage cabinets are charging for new energy vehicles. It is reported that each energy storage cabinet consists of five retired power battery modules, each cycle can provide more than 1,000 kWh of electricity, which can be used continuously for 8 to 10 years.
In addition, the East Lake sightseeing buses have been installed with Greenmax's gradient utilization of power batteries, riding on tourists to enjoy the scenery of Wuhan. The battery can also be used in portable power supply and home energy storage system, which can be used in every aspect of life.
Power batteries that have suffered serious degradation will also be utilized through recycling. Recycling involves the dismantling, crushing, sorting, material repair or smelting of batteries in order to extract the high-value lithium, nickel and other metals from them, which are put into the battery production line to realize reuse.
"We are the world's first lithium short-flow dry recovery and regeneration process scale mass production of enterprises. At present, four 10,000-ton engineered production lines have been built." Wuhan Ruikomei New Energy Limited Liability Company (hereinafter referred to as Ruikomei) executive deputy general manager Li Shouting introduction.
Dry recycling technology, is the waste power battery intelligent dismantling, get positive pole piece, negative pole piece, diaphragm and battery shell and other components, and then the pole piece for accurate separation and de-adulteration control and a series of other means, to get the valuable product, and then the next step in the process of material regeneration and recycling. For example, the lithium iron phosphate powder extracted from the power battery roll core can be used to manufacture new power batteries after performance repair, without the need for acid and alkali disposal and material re-synthesis and other heavy pollution and heavy energy consumption processes.
"Dry recycling process is simple, no need to consume additional chemicals, environmental protection is the best, suitable for large-scale promotion, especially in the future on environmental protection requirements are becoming more and more stringent, dry recycling is almost an unbeatable choice." Li Shouting said.
Integration of industry-university-research and utilization to promote enterprise technological innovation
Workers of Wuhan Power Regeneration Company are reorganizing battery modules. Reporter Lv Shiwen photo
"Recycling technology directly affects the recovery rate of power batteries and is a key factor in determining the profitability of power batteries." Li Shouting, executive deputy general manager of Ruikome, recalled that from a small technical team of 10 people to a large technical team of more than 100 people, the company has always placed research and development and innovation at the forefront of the company's development, and constantly improve technology to build core competitiveness.
Li Shouting that the product technology development process, is to find problems, solve problems, find new problems, and then solve the problem of the recurring cycle. For example, the initial technical route compatibility issues, to build a plant after the process stability, capacity matching issues, and later inconsistent raw materials, product performance stability issues.
In order to maximize the extension of battery service time, optimize the battery in the decommissioning of the gradient utilization and material regeneration stage of management, Wuhan Wei-Neng Battery Assets Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Wuhan Wei-Neng) set up a lithium solution Research Institute, focusing on the whole life cycle of power batteries and efficient management of the generalization of the technology.
According to reports, the lithium solution research institute is the first comprehensive research institution in China based on power battery application technology research and development, to enhance the overall value of the whole cycle of the battery, and to realize the landing of the research results. In addition to the self-built lithium solution research institute, Wuhan Weineng also self-developed "lithium solution" battery operation and service management platform, together for the safety and health of the battery assets escort. In terms of battery recycling and reuse, Wuhan Azure has innovatively researched and developed fine dismantling technology, short-process wet technology and cathode material direct regeneration technology on the recycling side based on the advantages of intensive battery management and controlled decommissioning, which maximizes the utilization of decommissioned batteries and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
In addition to their own research and development, enterprises also actively cooperate with universities to undertake research projects and overcome technical problems. The relevant person in charge of the Department of Economics and Information Technology of Hubei Province said that Hubei will take enterprises as the main body, strengthen cooperation with scientific research institutes and universities in "production, learning, research and use", and strengthen research and development in the direction of intelligence, safety and precision in dismantling and recycling for the high-security, high-efficiency and large-scale utilization of heterogeneous compatibility of "retired" power batteries.
At present, Wuhan Azure Energy and Huazhong University of Science and Technology have jointly carried out the research and development of low-carbonized comprehensive recycling and direct material regeneration technology, and through unique technology, the separation of high purity, low impurity extraction-free powder, which will comprehensively enhance the value of the whole cycle of the power battery.
Wuhan power battery recycling practice of production, learning, research and use, has also been recognized by the state. 2022, Wuhan Power Renewable Energy's "intelligent flexible dismantling system" was approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, intelligent manufacturing excellent scene, in the process of building this system, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, and other universities to provide the dismantling strategy and the theory of the robot support. "Wuhan universities play a strong basic scientific research capacity, complemented with the engineering experience of enterprises to promote the development of technology." Wuhan Power Renewal deputy general manager Bei Chuanyu said.
Wuhan metropolitan area has great potential to utilize the advantages of industrial chain
Phosphorus is one of the indispensable materials for power battery, which is mainly distributed in Hubei and Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan region, of which Hubei is the richest resource, ranking first in the country. Abundant phosphorus resources, coupled with the advantages of the "automobile corridor" industry clusters, more and more leading enterprises in the Wuhan metropolitan area to layout the power battery industry chain, so that the Wuhan metropolitan area has become China's new energy power battery industry new agglomeration area.
Hurun Research Institute released the "2022 Hurun China New Energy Industry Aggregation City List", in the industry concentration of the highest degree of the top 50 Chinese cities, Wuhan ranked fourth in the country, but also the new energy investment in the heat of the most agglomeration of one of the five major cities. Xiaogan with Chuneng new energy and a number of new energy projects settled, is becoming a new energy industry town; Xiantao has four new energy battery enterprises settled, with a total investment of nearly 50 billion yuan; Ezhou new energy industry in 2022 annual output value has exceeded 26 billion yuan; is located in Huangshi's Hubei Rongtong High-tech Advanced Material Group Co. Global Unicorn List" by Hurun Research Institute.
In Huangshi Economic and Technological Development Zone Baoshan Industrial Park, Hubei Bozhong Automation Technology Co., Ltd. invested 100 million yuan of electric vehicle dismantling center is stepping up construction, is expected to June 2025 can be put into use.
Hubei Bozhong Automation Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 2013, mainly engaged in automated dismantling of used cars and recycling and remanufacturing equipment, is the first batch of national high-tech enterprises in the automobile dismantling industry.
"Hubei is an important base for China's new energy automobile manufacturing, with a strong industrial base, and the recycling of new energy batteries is an important part of the new energy automobile industry, with great potential for future development." Ltd. general manager Yu Hanbin said, the company aimed at the market, and Hubei University of Technology to carry out school-enterprise cooperation, research and development of new energy automobile power battery flexible dismantling and laddering utilization technology, has formed a preliminary research results. The company is also ready to "new energy motor vehicle flexible dismantling line" as "unveil the list of commanding" project, to the domestic universities and institutes widely issued "hero post".
"Do a good job of flexible dismantling of new energy vehicles and new energy battery recycling, will help the high-quality development of new energy automobile industry in Hubei." Yu Hanbin said.
At present, Wuhan Power Recycling has already deployed power battery recycling outlets in Xiantao, and will further expand its recycling channels and strengthen its linkage with cities in the metropolitan area.
Li Shouting, executive deputy general manager of Ruikome, believes that Wuhan has a moderate transportation radius, and the transportation of battery waste from all over the country to Wuhan is not too far away, and it has a significant advantage in selling to all over the country after being processed into products.
"The transportation integration of Wuhan metropolitan area provides more convenient conditions for the transportation of upstream and downstream related industries of power battery." Wuhan Weineng relevant person in charge said, Wuhan metropolitan area has a world-class industrial clusters, new energy vehicles and power battery operation and recycling industry into the same industrial chain, and power battery industry to form a supporting, complementary, integrated development, can enhance the industry's concentration and clustering, so that the industry chain is more resilient and competitive.
Wuhan New Energy Vehicle Industry Association Secretary General Shi Guangyou suggested that Wuhan has strong scientific research strength, the metropolitan area cities also have production capacity, relying on the circle of the existing industrial base and core enterprises, around the industrial chain of each link to rationally allocate industrial resources, strengthen the regional and upstream and downstream industrial resource sharing, complementary advantages, integration and development, and guide the development of enterprise agglomeration, the formation of power battery recycling industry clusters.
(Changjiang Daily reporter Zhao Mengmeng Gao Ximing Zhou Tingbong)
[Edit: Zhao Ke]
