How to use the waste heat of power batteries-cascade utilization is transitioning to commercial applications

With great attention and support at the national level, my country's new energy automobile industry has entered a period of rapid development. With the continuous growth of the new energy vehicle market, the recycling and reuse of power batteries, the core component, has received much attention.

However, despite the long-standing deployment at the national level, the current development speed of the power battery recycling industry has not caught up with the development speed of the new energy automobile industry. The binding force of relevant policies and regulations on market norms is also somewhat painless. Entering 2020, large batches of power batteries will enter the retirement stage, and the battery recycling industry will also have a \"high fever\". Therefore, how to do a good job in the recycling of power batteries and establish a sound and complete standard system has become a concern for the entire industry.

A few days ago, at the 35th regular meeting of the FOURIN World Automotive Research Association (FAF) held in Beijing, Li Yuke, Director of the Automotive Industry Policy Research Office of China Automotive Technology Research Center, discussed the current development status and main problems of the domestic new energy vehicle power battery recycling industry , Put forward his own views and suggestions.

Cascade utilization is transitioning to commercial applications

After several years of research and exploration and pilot demonstrations, my country's power battery recycling industry has basically established a standard system. Under the entire automobile recycling system, there are four major blocks of general requirements, cascade utilization, recycling and management regulations, each of which has a series of standard plans. Among them, the echelon utilization of power batteries has attracted the participation of many new energy vehicle manufacturers, power battery suppliers, large-scale communication infrastructure integrated service companies and other related parties, focusing on power system energy storage, communication base station backup power supplies, low-speed electric vehicles, and Explore and deploy small-scale distributed home energy storage, wind-solar complementary street lights, mobile charging vehicles, electric forklifts and other related fields.

\"In the past, many vehicle manufacturers believed that there was no need to consider the cascade utilization of power batteries, but with the change of concepts in recent years, mainstream vehicle and battery manufacturers are also actively thinking about how to reduce the cost of the battery life cycle In the future, it can use the waste heat in the cascade utilization scenarios. In addition, independent third-party cascade utilization companies are also relatively active market entities, mainly using the advantages of the back-end market in low-speed cars, street lights, LEDs and other cascade utilization scenarios , Do some more technically advanced attempts.\" Li Yuke believes that China’s power battery cascade utilization industry is currently in the transitional stage from demonstration projects to commercialization, and related companies are also actively exploring the use of lease and sale, and provide new service models. Promote the application in the field of cascade utilization. In his view, in each scenario of cascade utilization, the solutions for power battery recycling are also different. At present, the application scale of decommissioned power batteries in the communication base station scene is the largest; the commercial application of the energy storage scene in the power system is mainly based on \"peak cutting and valley filling\" on the user side; in the field of low-speed electric vehicles, there is also a relatively broad market prospect.

In addition, regarding the price of power battery recycling in the cascade utilization scenario, Li Yuke introduced: \"First, determine the battery capacity. The price of ternary lithium batteries with a remaining capacity of more than 90% is 0.4-0.5 yuan/wh, iron phosphate Lithium batteries are 0.3-0.4 yuan/wh; batteries with a capacity below 80% can be recycled more than 800 times, but it is not recommended to be used in electric vehicles. For batteries that cannot be used in cascades, the battery materials can be used Recycling.\"

Many questions to be solved in power battery recycling

\"We predict that in the next ten years, retired power batteries will have corresponding large-scale applications. From 2025 to 2026, the entire power battery recycling will enter a period of rapid growth. In terms of different fields, at present, whether it is In the public sector, or in the private sector, lithium iron phosphate batteries account for a relatively high proportion, but after 2020, the amount of ternary lithium batteries will gradually increase, and even become mainstream. \" In Li Yuke's view, although the country actively encourages new The traceability management of the recovery and utilization of the power battery of energy vehicles has begun to gradually get on the right track. However, there are still many pain points in the industry.

He pointed out that, first, the relevant policies that have been issued for the power battery recycling industry are mainly instructive and guiding, and lack a certain mandatory binding force. Second, the supporting policies for each link are not sound. For example, the relevant definitions of recycling and transportation are not clear enough. And at the level of technical specifications, there is still a lack of uniform standards.

\"Among them, the construction of the recycling system is the most critical and the most prominent link. If there is a loss in this link, there will be no subsequent standardized treatment of battery recycling. At present, the recycling network policy requires new energy vehicle manufacturers As the main body of responsibility to build a recycling system, but in fact, manufacturers are also at a loss as to how to build and how to control the flow of batteries.\" Li Yuning believes that the country should extend the system of production responsibility, not only for vehicle manufacturers, Battery manufacturers should also bear corresponding responsibilities. At the same time, by building a power battery recycling service platform, recycling outlets, packaging containers, and logistics can also be shared, thereby helping companies reduce the cost of battery recycling.

In addition, Li Yuning pointed out that at present, at the level of power battery cascade utilization, a complete management method and policy system has not been established. Therefore, there is no clear and specific policy for orderly regulation of many management issues involved in cascade utilization. . He called for a unified strategic layout at the national level in terms of the development of the power battery recycling industry, including the extension of the connotation of producers and the point of extension.

Secondly, it is necessary to introduce special laws and regulations, which can exert a powerful restraint on the irregular behavior of the industry and the market. Furthermore, it is necessary to improve technical standards such as reduction of battery types and uniform use of models. In this way, it is more beneficial to the cascade utilization of power batteries, industry supporting management, construction of recycling systems, and business models.