In the comparison of the properties of lithium batteries and lead-acid batteries, the two different types of batteries have their own advantages. The advantage of lead-acid batteries is that the temperature band is very wide. Good discharge function in low temperature environment, the body will not explode in high temperature environment, high safety performance. Another big advantage is its low price, thanks to its abundant raw materials and high resource recycling rate. On the other hand, lithium battery has the advantage of high battery energy density, which allows it to open the market in the field of new energy vehicles requiring high endurance.

Lithium battery, lead-acid battery application field comparison

Different attributes and characteristics of lithium battery and lead-acid battery also determine their different application fields. Lead-acid battery is highly safe and cheap, which makes it popular in many application fields. The lightweight and portable nature of lithium batteries has allowed them to dominate the market for small batteries such as mobile phone batteries and laptop batteries. Where lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries will compete in the future will be in the electric bicycle market and the electric car market. At present, in the electric bicycle market, lead-acid battery accounts for 95% of the market. In the field of new energy vehicles, due to the implementation of the subsidy downslope policy, higher requirements are put forward for the energy density of automobile batteries, which also promotes the development of lithium batteries with high energy density in this industry.

To bring vitality to the development of lithium battery industry

At the end of 2017, "electric moped battery, Part 1 technical conditions" and "electric power booster battery, Part 2, product variety specifications" were released, and officially implemented on July 1, 2018. Battery new GB has clear provisions on battery energy density, battery lightweight set up standards, such as the new standard clearly pointed out that the mass of electric vehicle contains battery shall not be greater than 55KG, this rigid requirement means that many lead-acid battery will be eliminated, but also means that light and portable lithium battery will usher in the spring of development.

In addition, the Technical conditions for four-wheel low-speed electric vehicles (draft) are also released soon. It is said that for the sake of environmental protection, the draft requires that power battery products can only use power lithium batteries. If the draft falls into place, lithium-ion batteries will accelerate development under the guidance of national policies, while lead-acid batteries will lose development opportunities in this field.

Unable to break through the recycling process in a short time, enterprises are discouraged from the production and recycling of lithium ions

Before the national battery issued the new GB, lead-acid battery in the secondary power market is invincible, the kill is cheap. Compared with lithium battery, lead-acid battery production process is very simple, there is no need for special production environment control, the purchase of production machines and environmental purification machines, can be put into production; Lithium battery is different, the production process needs very production conditions, the premise of achieving these production conditions is a large amount of early capital investment, which also brings huge costs to the production of lithium battery.

But what really puts companies off is the complexity of recycling lithium. First of all, lithium battery recycling must be pretreated, and this link has many procedures, and only plastic and metal shells can be recovered after battery dismantling, recycling cost is high, as far as the pretreatment link is concerned, it is a loss business; After pretreatment, the positive electrode is extracted. The ratio of mixed liquid is very tricky, and the treatment of waste liquid after extraction also costs a lot. The process is heavy and the cost is high.

In contrast, lead-acid battery, because the battery lead, plastic case, separator, sulfuric acid can all be recycled and reused, so the waste lead-acid battery is very valuable things. And waste lead-acid battery recovery process is also more simple, recycling waste lead-acid battery is in the recovery of "money", accounting enterprises are more active in the recovery of lead-acid battery, but also further, cycle the production of lead-acid battery.

In a short period of time, the lithium battery recycling in the pretreatment stage of face still avoid according to law, and the processing of waste liquid is costly, unless the lithium battery recycling can have major technological breakthrough, let the lithium battery recycling profitable, otherwise, battery recycling market remains lead-acid battery market, lithium battery can't really replace lead-acid battery.

In general, because of the characteristics of high endurance demand, lithium batteries shine in the application field of new energy vehicles. The development of new energy vehicles in the future and the guidance of national policies will definitely promote the development of lithium battery industry. Lithium battery in the process of production and recovery, however, high costs still cannot ignore, high security and high resource circulation characteristics of lead-acid accumulator of low cost and more popular with the producing enterprise, so in the future for a long time, before the lithium battery recycling technology no breakthrough, lead-acid battery in the secondary market power is still solid hard to shake.