Greener technologies

The report noted that China needs to develop greener, cleaner, more sustainable processing technologies especially for spent batteries.

Most of the systems consist of interconnected battery packs composed of multiple cells, but a lack of universal standards in the structure and packing of the cells poses a major challenge for processors, experts said.

According to Sun, it is difficult to use automated equipment to dismantle the battery packs because they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, which raises costs. Moreover, as a safety measure, manufacturers usually insert resins into the packs to lock the cells in place during use, which adds to the difficulty in dismantling them.

"The efficient extraction of valuable metals from the cells is a crucial part of processing," he said, adding that the design of battery systems needs to be optimized to address challenges in the extraction process.

Because some spent cells or even entire packs could still be used to store power, Sun called for more attention to be paid to upgrading battery design to facilitate reuse.

Zhang, Tianneng's chairman, noted that extraction technologies are not cost efficient. "The cost of processing some types of battery is higher than the value of the recycled materials," he said.

There are different types of batteries, composed of different materials. The processing costs and the value of the recyclable materials they contain vary from battery to battery.

He added that China imports most of the lithium it uses, so the development of mature extraction technologies could help relieve the country's reliance on supplies from overseas.