Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
Waste Manag Res. 2021 Jan;39(1):156-164. doi: 10.1177/0734242X20966637. Epub 2020 Oct 24.
China has become the largest electric vehicle (EV) market in the world since 2015. Consequently, the lithium-ion battery (LiB) market in China is also expanding fast. LiB makers are continually introducing new types of LiBs into the market to improve LiBs' performance. However, there will be a considerable amount of waste LiBs generated in China. These waste LiBs should be appropriately recycled to avoid resources' waste or environmental pollution problems. Yet, because LiBs' type keeps changing, the environmental impact and profitability of the waste LiB recycling industry in China become uncertain. In this research, we reveal the detailed life cycle process of EVs' LiBs in China first. Then, the environmental impact of each type of LiB is speculated using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. Moreover, we clarify how LiBs' evolution will affect the economic effect of the waste battery recycling industry in China. We perform a sensitivity analysis focusing on waste LiBs' collection rate. We found that along with LiBs' evolution, their environmental impact is decreasing. Furthermore, if waste LiBs could be appropriately recycled, their life cycle environmental impact would be further dramatically decreased. On the other hand, the profitability of the waste battery recycling industry in China would decrease in the future. Moreover, it is essential to improve waste LiBs' collection rate to establish an efficient waste LiB industry. Such a trend should be noticed by the Chinese government and waste LiB recycling operators to establish a sustainable waste LiB recycling industry in the future.
自 2015 年以来，中国已成为全球最大的电动汽车（EV）市场。因此，中国的锂离子电池（LiB）市场也在快速扩张。LiB 制造商不断向市场推出新型 LiB，以提高 LiB 的性能。然而，中国将会产生大量的废旧 LiB。这些废旧 LiB 应进行适当的回收，以避免资源浪费或环境污染问题。然而，由于 LiB 的类型不断变化，中国废旧 LiB 回收行业的环境影响和盈利能力变得不确定。在这项研究中，我们首先揭示了中国电动汽车 LiB 的详细生命周期过程。然后，我们使用生命周期评估（LCA）方法推测每种 LiB 的环境影响。此外，我们阐明了 LiB 的演变将如何影响中国废旧电池回收行业的经济效应。我们专注于废旧 LiB 收集率进行了敏感性分析。我们发现，随着 LiB 的演变，其环境影响在降低。此外，如果废旧 LiB 能够得到适当的回收，它们的生命周期环境影响将进一步显著降低。另一方面，中国废旧电池回收行业的盈利能力将在未来下降。此外，提高废旧 LiB 的收集率对于建立高效的废旧 LiB 产业至关重要。中国政府和废旧 LiB 回收运营商应该注意到这种趋势，以便在未来建立一个可持续的废旧 LiB 回收产业。
