Lithium-ion battery recycling is primarily applied in two major areas: power batteries for new energy vehicles and lithium-ion batteries for electric bicycles. By building recycling networks and developing regeneration and secondary utilization technologies, a complete industrial closed loop has been formed.
The government is promoting the construction of a comprehensive recycling network system. For example, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives jointly issued a document proposing to leverage the existing recycling infrastructure of supply and marketing cooperatives to create a three-tiered recycling service system of “recycling points—transfer stations—sorting centers,” to standardize recycling processes and improve convenience for consumers.
Regarding recycling technologies, some companies have achieved high metal recovery rates. For example, related processes can achieve lithium recovery rates exceeding 96% and nickel-cobalt recovery rates exceeding 99%. Furthermore, some companies have achieved a complete life-cycle industrial closed loop from battery recycling to cathode material preparation.
In terms of recycling and processing capacity building, several large-scale waste lithium-ion battery recycling projects have been built in China, covering dismantling, secondary utilization, and wet extraction.
For example, some industrial bases have established a complete production system covering “battery dismantling—secondary utilization—comprehensive recycling and regeneration.”
For retired batteries with still acceptable performance, secondary use is an important application area. After testing and reassembly, these secondary batteries can be used in communication base stations, grid-side energy storage, low-speed electric vehicles, solar streetlights, and other fields.
