Ganfeng Lithium Industry: lithium is an indispensable element in the cause of energy transformation. The company has started the recycling of lithium materials.

On June 29, Wang Xiaoshen, vice chairman of Ganfeng Lithium Industry and chairman of Ganfeng Sustainable Development Committee, attended the "Green supply chain Management Forum under the background of carbon neutralization". The meeting focused on the sustainable development strategy of enterprises in the carbon-neutral era, and a number of enterprises worked together to explore feasible carbon emission reduction plans.

The meeting was hosted by Alashan SEE Taihu Lake Project Center, hosted by Green Jiangnan Public Environmental concern Center and co-sponsored by Public Environmental Research Center, and attended by Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, Lakestone Institute of Sustainable Development, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Huawei and other institutions or enterprises.

At the meeting, Wang Xiaoshen shared the efforts made by Ganfeng Lithium Industry in recent years to build a green supply chain for the lithium power industry with the theme of "Ganfeng practice of Green supply chain for Lithium Power". It also gives a profound and simple introduction to the sustainable cases of Ganfeng, such as green mining, low-carbon operation and the development of circular economy.

"Lithium is an indispensable element in the cause of energy transformation," says Wang Xiaoshen. Lithium batteries with lithium as the main material are the core components, whether they are electric fuel vehicles or clean energy sources such as photovoltaic and wind power.

Take electric vehicles as an example. Between 2015 and 2020, electric vehicles equipped with Ganfeng products have traveled more than 50 billion kilometers, equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 12.5 million tons.

In a specific case, Wang Xiaoshen shared Ganfeng's ESG measures in mining, manufacturing, and resource regeneration by taking Argentina's Lithium Salt Lake, Mahon Factory and Ganfeng cycle as examples.

Green mining

Green mining is a modern mining model that comprehensively considers the efficiency of resources and the impact of the environment. Its goal is to maximize the efficiency of resource development, minimize the impact on the ecological environment, and form a balance among environment, ecology and economy.

Wang Xiaoshen said that in the lithium salt lake project in Argentina, sunshine evaporation is the main process, and photovoltaic power is used in other links. In the process, water resources that do not meet human drinking standards are selected and recycled.

At the same time, in order to protect the local ecological balance, Ganfeng set up a biodiversity reserve around the Mariana project, which strictly forbids night lighting and avoiding noise; forbids human beings to enter the reserve during the breeding period of flamingos; and regularly rescues and releases local wild animals.

At the economic level, the completion of the Cauchari-Olaroz and Mariana projects will create hundreds of permanent jobs and introduce more infrastructure such as electricity and stadiums to improve the living conditions of residents and improve the local economic situation.

Low carbon operation

As a green industry, lithium new energy should be more sustainable in the production process, and the green in the process should not be ignored just because the result is green. In Wang Xiaoshen's view, only by reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption in daily production and operation can the positive development of the industry be guaranteed.

In order to control emissions, Ganfeng installed on-line monitoring equipment at the emission port to ensure that all exhaust gases meet the standards; improved measures such as denitrification transformation of the discharge port to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and the introduction of advanced tools to calculate carbon footprint and water footprint.

In order to make the best use of resources, Ganfeng builds a water circulation system to reuse water resources and realize zero discharge of waste water at the same time; implement waste heat transformation to the high temperature flue gas produced by rotary kiln and reuse heat in the production process; waste residue, chlorine and other by-products in the production process are used in other industries as raw materials.

In order to reduce energy consumption, Ganfeng put photovoltaic panels on the roofs of factory buildings and office buildings, using solar energy to generate electricity and increase the proportion of clean energy.

Resource regeneration

The recycling of lithium materials is another important practice of Ganfeng in the green supply chain.

This month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce issued the pilot implementation Plan for the extension of producer responsibility of Automotive products, to build a recycling system for scrapped cars, to improve the comprehensive competitiveness and resource and environmental benefits of automotive products, and to promote the green development of the automobile industry.

The plan points out that by 2023, the utilization level of scrapped automobile renewable resources will increase steadily, and the comprehensive utilization rate of resources will reach 75%; the automobile green supply chain system will be fully constructed, and the recyclable utilization rate of automobile will reach 95%. The proportion of recycled raw materials for key components is not less than 5%.

As a forerunner in the lithium industry, Ganfeng established Ganfeng cycle in 2016 and was selected by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on the list of enterprises in the industry standard conditions for comprehensive utilization of waste power batteries for new energy vehicles in 2020.

By 2020, the Ganfeng decommissioned lithium battery disassembly and metal comprehensive recovery project has reached a recovery capacity of 34000 tons, with a lithium recovery rate of more than 90% and a comprehensive recovery rate of nickel, cobalt and manganese of more than 98%. At present, Ganfeng cycle is completing the planning of capacity improvement and business development in an orderly manner, and gradually improve the layout of the recycling field.

According to public data, global carbon emissions exceed 30 billion tons, and total greenhouse gas emissions (equivalent to carbon dioxide equivalent) exceed 50 billion tons. The road to carbon neutralization has a long way to go. Ganfeng will continue to make efforts to improve the environmental protection of the production process, provide high-quality and sustainable battery raw materials for electric vehicles, clean energy storage and other areas, and work with global customers to help global energy transformation.