The recovery rate of cobalt and nickel resources exceeds 98%, and the comprehensive utilization of decommissioned power batteries has a bright prospect

Bao Wei, general manager of Zhejiang Huayou Cycle Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Huayou Cycle'), said in an interview with Battery China.com during the Cloud Forum of the Hundreds of Motor Vehicles (2021). As a key material for lithium battery manufacturing, the distribution of cobalt resources in the world is extremely uneven. Data show that the world's proven cobalt reserves are about 7 million tons in 2019, while China's reserves are 80,000 tons, accounting for only 1.14% of the world's total reserves. Bao Wei said that although China has a certain amount of cobalt resources, most of them do not have mining value. Almost all the cobalt metal for domestic demand comes from overseas. Other materials such as nickel and lithium are also facing similar problems, so battery recycling is an important source of materials for the development of new energy vehicles in China in the future. 01. Broad prospects for battery recycling Data show that by the end of 2020, my country's cumulative production and sales of new energy vehicles have exceeded 5 million. At the same time, the total amount of retired power batteries by 2020 has reached 200,000 tons. Bao Wei said that in 2017, the industry was still worried that no one would deal with the decommissioned power batteries, but by the end of 2020, the capacity of domestic battery recycling companies had far exceeded the decommissioned amount of decommissioned power batteries. For example, Bao Wei said that only the first batch of five compliant companies in the list of companies that meet the 'Industry Standards for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles' issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have a battery processing capacity of more than 600,000 tons. At the same time, there are many other companies in different industries entering the field of battery recycling. According to reports, there are many ways to recycle batteries. For example, Umicore overseas uses the fire method, and domestic Huayou Cycle and other companies use the traditional wet method. There are more dismantling methods from the battery pack to the battery cell, including live dismantling, unpowered dismantling, dismantling in a liquid environment, automatic dismantling, manual dismantling and many other methods. Among them, Huayou Cycle has specially studied a set of automated dismantling lines. “At present, the accumulated batteries recycled by Huayou Cycle are close to 10,000 tons from the direct battery pack. If you add some recycled intermediate products, the total amount may exceed 30,000 tons.' Bao Wei said. Because Huayou Cycle itself is a large-scale enterprise, the company reduces production costs through large-scale operations, while possessing leading technology, combined with the recycling and processing of waste from battery factories, and the comprehensive resource recycling sector has achieved profitability. Most of Huayou Cycle's customers come from vehicle companies, including well-known domestic and foreign companies such as Volkswagen, Toyota, and BMW. With the continuous increase in the production and sales of new energy vehicles, the number of decommissioned power batteries in the future will also increase significantly. Bao Wei predicts that in ten years, the proportion of 'urban mines' will account for a high proportion of battery material supply; after 20 years, most battery materials may come from 'urban mines' resources. 'The recovery rate of cobalt and nickel can now be over 98.5%, which is very high.' Bao Wei said. 02. Cascade utilization increases the value of batteries. However, not all retired power batteries are suitable for direct recycling. Because the ternary battery contains nickel, cobalt, and manganese, its regeneration value is very high. The lithium iron phosphate battery does not have much regeneration value, because its main constituent elements are lithium and iron, but because of its long service life, the value of cascade utilization is relatively high. 'Echelon utilization can add value to batteries, which is a good thing for the entire new energy industry. Because there was no such value originally, we created value, and in fact, the cost of batteries is reduced. Echelon utilization is to reduce batteries. A very good small branch of the cost of use.' Bao Wei said. According to reports, there are two main directions for the use of cascade batteries. One direction is low-speed vehicles, two-wheeled tricycles, forklifts, sanitation vehicles and other fields. Demand has increased substantially'. The second direction is energy storage. The use of energy storage is still in the exploratory period, so a large number of cascade batteries are still entering the two-wheeler link. With regard to the direction of the use of cascade batteries, the state has also issued relevant policies to make the use of cascades legal and compliant. 'How to ensure that the cascaded use of the battery is recycled, in fact, this is a very important issue.' Bao Wei said. According to reports, Huayou Cycle uses a self-sustaining method to lease batteries to customers. It can obtain a certain economic return. At the same time, the battery assets are still in its own hands. It not only achieves a good traceability of the battery, but also saves the battery. Ownership is in your own hands. In Bao Wei's view, with the continuous development of the new energy industry, continuous breakthroughs in battery technology, and continuous improvement in battery quality and life, the proportion of some retired batteries that can be used safely and economically in different application fields will gradually increase. The necessity and importance of utilization will also become more prominent. 03. In general, Bao Wei believes that whether it is direct recycling or echelon utilization, the upstream and downstream enterprises of the power battery need to work together to develop together. Vehicle companies can better cooperate with companies that make comprehensive use of decommissioned batteries to innovate the entire model, and it is possible to obtain a good result. 'Including the required data, we will research together, including the research of application scenarios, the research of the entire system, upstream and downstream must break the boundaries, instead of'he is him, I am me'. In fact, the process of cooperation will produce more Economic value.' Bao Wei said. In addition, the power battery comprehensive utilization industry is still in the initial stage of development, and the corresponding laws and regulations need to be improved. We hope that there will be more stringent or more complete laws and regulations to restrain some chaos in the industry, so that the industry can achieve healthy and orderly development. .