90%
Hoewel het aantal te recyclen aandrijfbatterijen op dit moment nog niet groot is, is de recyclingbranche voorbereid op deze nieuwe technologie. Veel importeurs maken al gebruik van ARN’s inzamel- en verwerkingssysteem voor batterijen.
ARN heeft met Stibat (Stichting Batterijen), inzamelbedrijven en recyclingbedrijven een systematiek opgezet voor inzameling, logistiek en verwerking van afgedankte batterijen met een negatieve restwaarde. Volgens het Besluit beheer batterijen (Bbb) zijn autofabrikanten en -importeurs verplicht om zowel de startaccu’s als de aandrijfbatterijen van hybride en elektrische auto’s na gebruik terug te nemen. Door deel te nemen aan het collectieve systeem (waarvoor zij een beheerbijdrage betalen) dragen zij de uitvoering over aan ARN.
Concreet zorgt ARN voor de inname en verwerking van de afgedankte aandrijfbatterijen en startaccu’s met een negatieve restwaarde. In de praktijk gaat het dan om Li-ion accu’s. Ook regelt ARN de informatievoorziening en rapportage aan de overheid daarover. Bovendien rapporteert ARN aan de overheid over de auto-accu’s met een positieve restwaarde: lood- en NiMH-accu’s.
Sustainable Development Goals
For the second year, ARN has submitted itself to the yardstick of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the motto ‘lean and green’ in mind. The colored SDGs shown opposite apply specifically to the content of this page.
Drive batteries in practice
Firstly, drive batteries need to be dismantled from cars. ARN guarantees that this work is performed by adequately trained persons who are equipped with the right tools and Personal Protective Equipment. Fortunately, many car dismantling companies send their employees on ARN’s ‘Safely dismantling electric and hybrid cars’ training course. For the time being, the majority of batteries are provided by dealerships. Safe dismantling of the battery there largely involves following the instructions from the importer or manufacturer.
Once the battery has been dismantled, it needs to be established how it should be transported. Further safety requirements apply for broken or damaged batteries. These batteries need to be transported in special battery boxes. ARN has invested in these boxes to enable collection companies to safely transport ‘batteries that are not secure for transport’ (officially: the batteries that can quickly fall apart under normal transport conditions, react dangerously or cause flames or hazardous heat development or a hazardous emission of toxic, corrosive or flammable gases or vapours).
In 2018, fewer than 20 per cent of end-of-life batteries were classified as ‘not secure for transport’ and so had to be transported in the special container. It costs many times more to transport these batteries than batteries that are ‘secure for transport’. New legislation will enter force in 2019 on storage and transport and ARN is ready to respond to this.
Second life
In 2018, around 90 per cent of end-of-life drive batteries gained a second life at a processing company that converts batteries for reuse in stationary applications. Together with its various partners, ARN searches for solutions for the reuse of end-of-life batteries from cars, such as sustainable energy storage. This means that reuse can take all manner of forms, such as the development of battery-powered lighting columns for an airport runway. Used batteries sometimes also find their way to pleasure boats, which are able to sail free of emissions with a former car battery. Or they are used as a buffer for owners of solar panels for storing energy in residential neighbourhoods.
Reuse entering its stride
It should be clear that the sector is well prepared for the dismantling and processing of batteries, but also that the development of unique ways of reuse is starting to gain pace, long before the peak in battery recycling occurs.
A second life!
An end-of-life lithium-ion battery from an electric bus or car can continue to work for years as a storage and delivery point for energy. That offers opportunities as a new line of business is also emerging that focuses on smart, innovative manners of redeploying these batteries as a static energy buffer.
A good example of this is the project in Arnhem, in which Arnhemse Time Shift energy storage provides its batteries to the Smart Trolley Grid. This is a smart electricity network, consisting of charging points on trolley masts, where the trolleybus can offload its braking energy. Subsequently, electric vehicles can ‘refuel’ with this recovered electricity’.
On the fort island of Pampus in IJmeer, the power generated by solar panels is stored in these batteries for later use. Pampus wants to be 100% sustainable and self-sufficient by 2022.
There are also possibilities for reuse in cars. SNT (Spiers New Technologies), an American car battery specialist based in Ede, has built a 3,400 square metre business complex for future developments in the field of remanufacturing. The company will be able to quickly and precisely find out which of the many battery modules and cells are causing problems and which ones should be replaced by cells from its huge inventory.