Recycling and Echelon Utilization of Used Lithium-Ion Batteries from Electric Vehicles in China

As one of the regions with the largest number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the world, China has experienced rapid growth in the penetration rate of EVs, which has led to the peak period of power battery retirement. One of the challenges that people need to solve is how to properly dispose of these retired lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). As a possible solution, echelon utilization is considered to be the most promising method in terms of energy-saving and environmental benefits. The rapid classification and reorganization of retired batteries is the difficulty in realizing the practical application of echelon utilization. Therefore, this paper focuses on the current status and challenges of the echelon utilization in China. Firstly, the current status, recycling modes, and standards are summarized comprehensively to analyze its situation. Secondly, the key technologies of the echelon utilization solutions are analyzed in detail. Guidance and feasible technical solutions are delivered for battery non-destructive disassembly, rapid classifying and recombination. Finally, the future development direction of echelon utilization is examined. The booming cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies are regarded as advanced means to realize the management of the whole cycle of LIBs, which will be widely used in echelon utilization.