Instead of throwing it directly into a landfill, sending waste to a ** station is obviously a more planet-friendly solution.
The battery material in all discarded pieces is a precious "treasure" rich in rare metals that can be brought back to life after being crushed by a shredder – whether it's from a wireless keyboard, a scrapped toy, or a large piece of retired battery for an electric car.
Focusing on the automotive industry, the power battery, as the "heart" of electric vehicles, is not only a conceptual innovation of "turning waste into treasure", but also a question of whether it truly responds to the issue of climate change.
The Paris Agreement has stated that in order to limit global warming to 15 Below, by 2030, 100 million electric vehicles should be added to the world's roads, which means a 50-fold increase from today's figure, but the climate community has long been aware of the inherent contradiction of this figure: although the direct emissions generated by electric vehicles during the driving phase are close to zero, the power battery manufacturing process itself is a large emitter, so if the use of batteries is neglected, achieving this goal may also cause counterproductive environmental harm.
According to an industry insider who has long been concerned about the green recycling of polymer resources, the nickel, cobalt, manganese and other metal substances contained in the electrode, the graphite in the anode material, and the volatile solvent in the electrolyte will cause pollution to water, soil and air.
China is a major manufacturer of power batteries, so it is also the country with the largest number of retirements. According to data from China Automotive Technology and Research Center, China will produce about 200,000 tons of retired power batteries in 2020, which will increase to 780,000 tons by 2025.
At present, BMW China's ecological construction around retired power batteries can become a sample to observe how "responsible" car companies lay out.
"Smart" tracking system
The premise of finding a "green home" for retired batteries is to carry out effective life cycle management, and the carbon emissions of the whole life cycle of batteries have become the focus of attention of countries, enterprises and research institutions, and some countries are gradually incorporating product life cycle assessment and carbon footprint into the necessary considerations of international green.
The policies promulgated by Chinese regulators also fully echo the emphasis on battery life cycle management. In 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other ministries and commissions issued the "Interim Measures for the Management of the Utilization of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles" and related regulations.
It is reported that this year, BMW officially launched a battery traceability system in China to ensure the traceability of the whole life cycle of the power battery, and after several years of operation, it will be updated to the system's "2Version 0" - BMW's self-developed high-voltage battery life cycle monitoring platform.
In addition to the previous traceability of vehicle production, vehicle sales and battery ** information, the newly upgraded battery life cycle management system, "2Version 0 has been optimized in terms of real-time battery status and platform information diversity, and has become more intelligent.
Qin Chunliu, High Voltage Battery Life Cycle Manager at BMW Brilliance, told Wall Street that the diversity of information on the platform is achieved through the upgrading of the IT system and the addition of new modules.
Specifically, on the battery production side, the new system opens up the data with the battery supplier, and the battery information provided by the battery supplier to BMW will be automatically synchronized in the systemBMW's R&D side also incorporates battery information in the R&D and verification stages into the system for management**The logistics side also introduces a smart logistics function based on AI technology, when the battery is decommissioned, the system will automatically plan the best logistics route according to the location and storage time of the retired battery.
According to the number of batteries and the material and status information of each battery, the recycled materials can be tracked in real time, so as to realize the full closed-loop traceability of the transparency of battery raw materials. As early as the previous generation of the system, the battery information in the system has been connected to the synchronization with the national platform, and the updated system uses blockchain technology to further ensure that the uploaded data will not be changed and synchronized to all participants.
Wall Street also learned that the system mainly uses physical traceability of the battery status before the update, and each cell will have an independent code, similar to an ID card, and the battery has information uploaded synchronously at all stages of the life cycle such as vehicle production, vehicle sales, and battery **, and after the upgrade, the dual monitoring of "physical traceability" and "performance monitoring" has been realized.
BMW's traceability of battery information has reached the cell level, and each battery pack, battery module, and battery has an exclusive identity ID, which can be independently monitored.
The upgraded system adopts the battery health assessment algorithm jointly developed by BMW Group and Tsinghua University, based on big data, by collecting the chemical performance and performance of the battery during the use of the vehicle, combined with the battery type parameters, each charge and discharge, average working conditions and other data, the battery life is estimated, and the data is collected and updated every 30 seconds.
The carbon reduction effect brought about by the "rebirth".
According to the calculations of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the carbon emissions of mainstream power battery NCM and LFP in the raw material acquisition stage reach about 80%, of which the cathode material of NCM contains nickel, cobalt, manganese and other metals, all of which need to go through mining, smelting and other processes, which will consume a lot of fossil energy.
The production and manufacturing of batteries requires a large amount of electricity and natural gas. Among them, the ultra-clean drying room is the main carbon emission of power battery manufacturing, because there are multiple process steps in the entire production process of the battery that need to be carried out in a vacuum drying environment, and a stable temperature must be maintained through continuous energy**.
A recent study conducted by the Finnish companies Recser Oy and Lassila & Tikanoja found that batteries and the use of metals from them can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 98 percent compared to mining new metals, which emit significantly less greenhouse gases than metals obtained through primary production.
The study also developed coefficients to describe the environmental benefits of seven metals from batteries and accumulators. These coefficients are based on the scientific literature and take into account the entire metal production chain, from mining to **. The results of the study showed that ** manganese emits 98% less greenhouse gas than virgin manganese obtained through primary production. Similarly, nickel and cobalt emit 98% and 59% fewer greenhouse gases, respectively, than their primary-produced counterparts.
A study involving the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Battery Recycling Enterprises calculated the carbon emissions of an NCM battery and found that the greenhouse gas emissions of the cathode material for the normal use of virgin materials to produce 1 ton of the battery reached 289 tons;The greenhouse gas emissions of the cathode material of the cathode material produced by ** battery reached 398 tons, but at the same time can obtain lithium carbonate, manganese sulfate, cobalt sulfate and other products, which is equivalent to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 214 tons, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 363%。
We also measured the scenario of using green energy for all the electricity consumed in production, and found that the greenhouse gas emissions from the normal use of virgin materials will also be reduced by 46%, and if the cathode materials are produced from ** batteries at the same time, the greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 90%.That's as much as 7%. A researcher involved in the process told Wall Street Insight.
The data provided by BMW supports a similar view. In 2022, the BMW Group and its partners in China used an innovative cooperation model to achieve the first closed-loop of raw materials for domestic EV batteries**, and the key raw materials in retired batteries, such as cobalt, nickel, lithium, etc., can be fully reproduced and returned to BMW's domestic battery production system for the production of new BMW batteries. Compared to the use of virgin raw materials, this measure conserves resources and reduces CO2 emissions by around 70%. It is reported that at present, the closed-loop model has covered all BMW electric models sold in China, and as of November, it has accumulated more than 1,000 tons of power battery raw materials.
Wall Street has learned from the industry that the recycled battery raw materials obtained through the closed-loop model are mainly recycled power batteries from consumers, and most of the outlets are automobile sales and service 4S shops, automobile repair plants, etc., and the retired power batteries are packaged and transported to battery reuse enterprises.
BMW has built a dedicated battery** storage room that meets the relevant construction standards at the dealership, meets specific temperature and humidity requirements, is equipped with cameras, smoke detector systems, safety boxes, etc., and adopts unified fire protection and management rules and regulations. At present, more than 400 dealers in China have set up battery storage rooms, and it is expected that all dealers in the country will complete the upgrade next year. At the same time, it has also developed a mobile phone applet for dealers, through which dealers can upload battery data and submit **documents for logistics**. Through cooperation with dealers, BMW hopes that every BMW new energy vehicle owner can enjoy more secure, worry-free and reassuring battery after-sales and first-class services.
"Retire without stopping" innovative echelon utilization model
For retired batteries with high residual capacity, BMW has been able to reuse them through a variety of cascade utilization modes, and is the first automaker in China to realize the cascade utilization of power batteries. Cascade utilization means that the battery itself is not damaged, but due to the attenuation (when the general capacity is less than 80%), it is not enough to continue to support the use of electric vehicles, and it can be relegated to the next best thing, and it can be used in scenarios such as power storage and backup power supply for communication base stations at the same or downgraded level.
According to relevant research, cascade utilization is divided into four stages according to the attenuation degree of battery capacity: the battery capacity is not less than 80% for the use stage;When the battery capacity is at 60%-80%, it can be used for cascade utilization and packaging reengineering, and can be applied to energy storage, communication base stations, backup power and other fields after cascade utilizationWhen the battery capacity is 20%-60%, it will be directly disassembled into a single battery and then reassembled for the user sideWhen the battery capacity is less than 20%, it will be scrapped directly.
Cascade utilization can be said to be a very good way to extend the entire life cycle of the battery, that is, to extend the life of the battery as much as possible. "In 2021, when we and Huayou cycled the cascade utilization of retired power batteries on forklifts, they were only used on pallet trucks, and today at BMW's Shenyang production base, not only pallet trucks, but also various other types of forklifts are using cascade utilization batteries. ”
According to Ge Hanming, in the Lida plant of Tiexi Factory, the operation of the green elevator energy storage project was officially launched in May this year, and the BMW ix3 retired battery module was transformed into a cascade energy storage cabinet, which was transformed into a "green photovoltaic storage integrated station" with photovoltaic modules to meet the daily electricity demand of the plant.
Our approach is to co-innovate with partners like Huayou Recycling, first conduct long-term testing and verification in-house, and then make wider promotion after the verification is passed, such as introducing cascade energy storage equipment in dealer stores in the future to store rooftop photovoltaic power generation. During these tests and validations, we address the technical issues we encounter. Graham said.
Hanming Ge Qin Chunliu, Director of BMW Brilliance China's New Energy Vehicle Business Unit, added that cascade utilization is not the same as traditional **, and is a relatively cutting-edge and exploratory topic in the industry, so a lot of research work will be done internally, "including our research on the health status of batteries with Tsinghua University, mainly for cascade utilization." When we are very confident in the product, we will bring the echelon product to the market, so it will go through a relatively long verification process. ”
Hu Xiaosong, Senior Manager of High Voltage Battery Business Development at BMW Brilliance, told Wall Street that the verification process is not only a verification of the technology, but also a verification of the application scenarios, including where the cascade products should be used and what benefits they can provide to users.
Due to the safety considerations of the cascade utilization project, the current echelon utilization project is still in the pilot stage of the project, so the proportion of retired batteries used in the cascade project is still relatively low. Hu Xiaosong said that because most of the current cascade utilization scenarios are still energy storage, out of careful consideration of the safety of energy storage, it is now mainly applied to the construction project of its own factory.
At present, a total of 38 logistics equipment in BMW's Shenyang production base have used retired power batteries for cascade utilization, and like BMW's other explorations in the field of power batteries, this number will continue to grow.
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