The lithium battery recycling market or hundreds of billions of "big cake" and "share" is full of challenges.

Due to the shortage of lithium power raw materials, the waste battery recycling industry has been paid more and more attention. Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also said a few days ago that we will improve the recycling system of power batteries, support the tackling of key technologies such as efficient disassembly and recycling, and constantly improve the recovery rate and resource utilization efficiency.

Under the hot market, the recycling price of waste batteries has gone up. With the price of lithium carbonate exceeding 500000 yuan per ton, and precious metals such as nickel and cobalt rising, according to CCTV, power battery recycling enterprises have begun to increase prices to "grab goods". At present, the price of decommissioned batteries has exceeded that of new goods, and under the stimulation of high profits, there is no lack of hoarding in the industrial chain.

Waste batteries become a "big cake", but it is also challenging to get a piece of the pie. Zhao Xiaoyong, managing director of Beijing Saidemi Resource reuse Research Institute Co., Ltd., made a comprehensive interpretation of the theme of "opportunities and challenges of lithium battery recycling" in the FYF Bee Network experts' conference call on March 9. Zhao Xiaoyong, a former deputy general manager of Ke Liyuan, is also a major participant in four national standards in the power battery recycling industry with senior experience in the industry.

Wet process is the main recovery mode in China.

As the main purpose of waste battery recycling is to extract precious metals, the purity and operating cost of recycling technology directly affect the recovery profits of enterprises. According to Zhao Xiaoyong's analysis of the situation in the industry, there are mainly three technical paths for waste battery recycling, namely, fire method, wet method and physical method.

According to reports, the fire process is represented by the Belgian enterprise Umico, which operates a 7000-ton pyrometallurgical incinerator in Belgium. The advantage is that it can be incinerated at high temperature, and only carbon dioxide is emitted. In addition, the raw materials can not be rejected.

The disadvantage is that the incinerator needs high temperature and high energy consumption, and the main precious metals extracted from the metal slag after high temperature incineration are cobalt and nickel, basically lithium and aluminum can not be recovered, and the recovery profit is low compared with the traditional wet method. at present, there is still no large-scale operation of enterprises in China.

The most mainstream technology path of domestic waste battery recycling enterprises is wet smelting process, such as Green Mei, Bang Pu, Huayou, Haopeng and so on. At present, the recovery rate of cobalt and nickel in the wet smelting process can basically reach more than 98%, and the recovery rate of lithium has increased from the previous 70% to the current industry level to 80%. "there are even some advanced processes that can do more than 90%," Zhao Xiaoyong said.

In addition, after the extraction of precious metals by wet technology, we can realize "where we come from and where we go". Because the process is more mature, it can be reapplied to the new energy industry. But the disadvantage is also obvious, low-temperature incineration is needed in the early stage, and acid and alkali need to be added in the latter stage of extraction, which is not very friendly to the environment.

The law of physics is represented by Beijing Seidmei, which pioneered a new environmentally friendly power battery recycling method that combines the precise disassembly of single cells and the repair of positive and negative electrode materials. The advantage is that it is environmentally friendly enough, the process does not need any acid or alkali, and it can build factories in major new energy consumption cities across the country.

In addition, when the price of lithium carbonate is less than 70,000 yuan / ton, the recovery of lithium iron phosphate battery by physical method still has a certain economy, which solves the problem of economy when the price of lithium iron phosphate is low. But the disadvantage is that the extracted lithium carbonate material, due to the mixing of impurities, will reduce the energy density of the battery by 5%, so it is mainly used in two-wheeler, tricycle, energy storage and other markets.

Zhao Xiaoyong added that in terms of potential technology in the future, the most potential technology is biological method, but it has not yet moved towards industrialization. The main feature of biological method is the use of biological enzymes to replace the acids and bases in the wet process, which is relatively friendly to the environment.

Each channel model has its own "thousand years".

Obviously, with the technological progress and capital blessing, the technology path of lithium recovery will continue to iterate. In addition to technology, recycling channels are also a top priority. Zhao Xiaoyong said that if formal waste battery recycling enterprises do not reach the recycling scale of more than 3000-5000 tons, it will be very difficult to break even.

The recycling mode represented by Grimme is called "full life cycle" recycling. Through the recycling of waste batteries, to raw material remanufacturing-material remanufacturing-battery pack remanufacturing, and then to echelon utilization, the path includes the whole process of battery recycling. At present, Green Mei's main partners are car companies, battery factories and scrapped car dismantlers, and they also have a layout among scrapped car dismantling companies.

Through the deep bundling of upstream and downstream channels, it is represented by Huayou Cobalt Industry, which is mainly through cooperation with car companies and layout in echelon products. In cooperation with battery enterprises, play the slogan of "waste for materials", that is, battery enterprises will give waste to Huayou Cobalt Industry, Huayou Cobalt Industry to provide materials on a pro rata basis.

Shenzhen Bang Pu has formed a special "help" mode by virtue of its relationship with CATL and ATL. Shenzhen Bangpu mainly relies on two industry giants, CATL and ATL, and the waste batteries of the latter two are the main source of recycling in Shenzhen Bangpu. Since CATL and ATL account for half of the domestic share, it is difficult for other companies to reach their size.

On the other hand, Beijing Saedmei has opened up another "battlefield" by avoiding the highly competitive channels. Although Beijing Saidemi also relies on car companies, battery factories, energy storage enterprises, etc., the focus of Beijing Saidemi is on automobile operators. Zhao Xiaoyong said that at the beginning of its establishment in Beijing, it began to communicate with a large number of bus enterprises and became the largest enterprise in China to recycle waste bus batteries.

It said that another focus of the layout of Beijing Saidemi is on scrapped car dismantlers, because in 2020, the users of new energy vehicles have shifted from traditional operating companies to private consumers, and there will be a large number of waste batteries in the next five to eight years. Flow to scrapped car dismantlers linked to DMV.

The four thresholds constitute a "barrier"

According to Guangfa Securities's related research and calculation, the mid-scale forecast of lithium battery recycling in 2030 will reach 108.9 billion yuan. Behind the huge "cake", a large number of waste battery recycling enterprises are scrambling to enter the bureau. But it is obvious that not everyone can get a piece of the pie. Zhao Xiaoyong summarized four major barriers for the waste battery recycling industry, namely, technical barriers, channel barriers, capital barriers and management barriers.

According to the further analysis, most of the domestic recycling enterprises adopt the wet process, but due to the requirements of environmental protection, the main landing place is in the chemical park or metallurgical park in the fourth-and fifth-tier cities. The previous development model of "environment for economy" has been difficult to apply, which means that even after the plant is built, it will become a great obstacle if it continues to meet the national requirements for environmental protection in the EIA.

The second is the channel barrier. When the waste battery recycling enterprises enter the industry, we should first consider whether the enterprise can establish a smooth recycling channel within a certain period of time, and receive enough waste batteries and decommissioned batteries. "otherwise, with a large amount of investment, the equipment may have to bask in the sun, and the workers may have nothing to do." Zhao Xiaoyong said that formal waste battery recycling enterprises, in the recycling volume does not reach more than 3000-5000 tons of recycling scale, it is very difficult to break even.

The third is the capital barrier. The larger the scale of waste battery recycling enterprises, the higher the requirements for liquidity, because battery recycling is generally spot cash, in addition to conventional inventory, in the link of material sales, there is a common account period.

The fourth is the management barrier. In the waste battery recycling industry, the upstream involves car companies, battery factories, energy storage enterprises, scrapped car dismantlers, and so on. Enterprises themselves also need to establish recycling service networks throughout the country, and echelon utilization needs to deal with enterprises in different application scenarios. this means that the upstream, middle and downstream all need strong resource integration and management capabilities.