2015 saw an all-time high of the sales of domestic alternative energy vehicles:
China produced an accumulated total of 379,000 alternative energy vehicles in
2015, up by 400% over 2014. In 2009-2015, China manufactured 497,000
alternative energy vehicles altogether, 30%+ of global alternative energy
vehicle sales, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (MIIT).
Such large quantities
of alternative energy vehicles will bring a considerable amount of waste power
battery. How to make comprehensive utilisation of these waste power batteries
is a concern of the government as well as the society.
Policy: a look at the “vehicle aftermarket”
The Chinese policies for the promotion of alternative energy vehicle is
gradually transferring from subsidy on purchase, to application environment and
further to the “aftermarket”. In Jan. 2016, MIIT released the Regulations for
the Comprehensive Utilisation of Waste Power Battery from Alternative Energy
Vehicle (Exposure Draft) and the Interim Measures for the Administration of the
Announcement about the Comprehensive Utilisation of Waste Power Battery from
Alternative Energy Vehicle (Exposure Draft), to solicit public opinions.
Now China’s research on power battery are aimed at improving the safety and
extending battery lifespan, seldom on the recycling issue.
There are 2 ways to dispose waste power battery: one is to scrap and dismantle
as industrial wastes, to further extract and recycle raw materials, the other
is to use the battery specifically with less than 80% capacity as the carrier
of energy in other fields so as to realise its residual value.
Comprehensive utilisation: full of difficulties and challenges
Before waste power battery can be used as energy storage battery, several
problems remains to be solved.
First, how to dismantle the waste power battery is still a question. As
different vehicles have different designs of battery pack structure and module
link pattern, it is not possible to apply one disassembly line to all battery
packs and internal modules.
Second, it is hard to precisely predict the residual lifespan.
"Cost control and business mode are rather difficult to develop," according
to Chen Quanshi, director of Electric Vehicle Division, Society of Automobile
Engineers of China, "Judging from the current situation, the comprehensive
utilisation of waste power battery still needs subsidy from government.”
Power battery expected to bring industries into the “lithium” age
Since alternative energy vehicle is promoted, the comprehensive utilisation of
waste power battery has received little attention. However, it is necessary to
solve the problem, as the industrialisation of the alternative energy vehicle
business has brought large quantities of waste power batteries.
The best
solution is to make comprehensive use of the batteries that are no longer
applicable to alternative energy vehicles but still capable of storing
electricity. If power battery is fully and comprehensively used, it will
facilitate the upgrading of a few industries such as power station, electric
bicycle, and low-velocity electric vehicle.
- Energy storage battery
Currently, the domestic-developed energy storage battery is mainly used for
power storage in communication base station and the UPS power storage in big
data centres and banks. For this, the leading energy storage battery is
lead-acid battery, which is cheap and at low costs for maintenance.
Waste power
battery, usually 90% cheaper than new battery, is quite competitive - it boasts
higher price-performance ratio and higher energy density than lead-acid
battery. For the moment, it must be guaranteed that waste power battery has a
sound BMS system, or the safety and reliability will be greatly reduced.
- Electric bicycle
Electric bicycle has a penetration of 200 million units into the market, as a
very common transportation tool to consumers. Accordingly, 90% of such bicycles
adopt lead-acid battery whilst only 10% use Li-ion battery.
With the economic
development and the improvement of people’s living quality, consumers
increasingly value the factors such as quality, appearance, property,
intelligentisation, etc. And only small, light and high-capacity Li-ion battery
can meet these needs. Waste power battery is more competitive in the market
because it can better match electric bicycle in terms of costs.
Alternative energy vehicle industry emerges with a backdrop of energy
conservation and emission reduction. In this business, the extensive
development pattern should be removed, to establish a more efficient and
refined recyclable economic development pattern so as to conserve energy and
reduce emissions, instead of merely pursuing the scale effect.
*
News on China Youth Daily, translated by CCM.
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