In 2024, the actual recovery volume of waste lithium-ion batteries in China reached 654,000 tons, among which the recovery volume of ternary lithium batteries and their scraps stood at 243,000 tons. Based on this, it is estimated that approximately 36,000 tons of nickel metal can be recovered. The efficient development of this "urban mine", supported by technological breakthroughs from institutions such as the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and intensive national policy support, is driving the circular utilization of nickel resources into a high-quality development stage, providing crucial support for the green transformation of the new energy industry.
Prominent Value of Resource Circulation: Recycled Nickel Fills Industrial Demand Gap
With the rapid development of the power battery industry, new changes have emerged in the supply-demand pattern of nickel resources. Data shows that in 2024, the global supply of primary nickel was in surplus by 146,300 tons, yet the demand for nickel in the battery sector maintained a five-year compound annual growth rate of 24.51%, highlighting the structural supplementary role of recycled nickel. Nickel accounts for 30% to 60% of the cathode material in ternary lithium batteries, and efficient recycling can be achieved through professional recovery technologies.
The latest green leaching system developed by the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of CAS has realized the preferential and selective recovery of nickel from high-nickel ternary batteries. The leaching efficiency of lithium, cobalt, and manganese exceeds 98%, while the nickel precipitation efficiency is over 97%. The separation process can be completed in just 50 minutes at 100°C, with the final product purity reaching nearly 99.9%. This technology solves the problems of high acid-base consumption and long processes in traditional technologies, laying a technical foundation for the industrial application of recycled nickel.
On the application side, a diversified industrial chain for recycled nickel has been formed. By replacing primary nickel with recycled nickel, power battery enterprises have not only shortened the supply chain response cycle by 30% but also effectively mitigated the risks of raw material price fluctuations. In the stainless steel manufacturing sector, the qualification rate of 304 stainless steel produced using recycled nickel reaches 98.5%, with an 18% cost reduction, enabling large-scale application in kitchenware, medical devices, and other fields. Recycled nickel has also been adopted in the manufacturing of high-temperature alloys for the aerospace industry, and its high-temperature resistance of 1200°C fully meets military-grade standards.
Synergy between Policy and Technology: The Industry Enters a Standardized Development Track
Significant progress has been made in the establishment of industry standards. At the end of 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) revised and issued the Industry Norms for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries from New Energy Vehicles, which increased the lithium recovery rate indicator in the smelting process from 85% to 90%, added a requirement that the recovery rate of electrode powder after crushing and separation should not be less than 98%, and simultaneously strengthened environmental protection and safety standards. The policy orientation clearly focuses on technological upgrading and large-scale operation, specifying that enterprises should have a registered capital of no less than 10 million yuan and a recycling and utilization capacity of no less than 5,000 tons per year.
In February 2025, the Executive Meeting of the State Council reviewed and approved the Action Plan for Improving the Recycling System of Waste Power Batteries from New Energy Vehicles, which provides an average subsidy of 42,000 yuan for vehicles replacing power batteries, further stimulating the vitality of the recycling market. Supported by dual policies, the industry is accelerating its reshuffle, shifting from simple expansion to refined operation. Leading enterprises have achieved revenue growth relying on technological advantages, while small and medium-sized enterprises with backward technologies are facing elimination pressure, and the space for "illegal workshop-style" operations continues to shrink.
According to industry white paper data, by the end of 2024, China's white-list lithium-ion battery recycling and dismantling capacity had reached 2.191 million tons per year, and the echelon utilization capacity had reached 2.042 million tons per year. Industrial clusters in Ganzhou (Jiangxi Province) and Changsha (Hunan Province) have initially taken shape, realizing the optimization of the industrial layout featuring "local recycling and local disposal". The dual improvement of technical standards and industrial layout has driven the recycled nickel industry into a new stage of high-quality development.
Dual Economic and Environmental Benefits: Building New Advantages for Green Development
The environmental value of the recycled nickel industry continues to be released. Data shows that the carbon emissions during the production of recycled nickel are only 20% of those of primary nickel, with each ton of recycled nickel reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 6.4 tons compared to primary nickel. In 2024, the emission reduction related to recycled nickel in China reached 512,000 tons, equivalent to the ecological benefit of planting 2.8 million trees. In terms of resource protection, each ton of waste ternary lithium batteries can be recycled to extract 0.15 tons of nickel, replacing the mining of 1.8 tons of nickel ore. Based on the 2024 recovery volume, this is equivalent to reducing nickel ore mining by 437,000 tons and protecting over 65 square kilometers of land.
In terms of economic benefits, recycled nickel demonstrates cost advantages. Compared with the 60-day production cycle of primary nickel, the purification cycle of recycled nickel is shortened to 30 days, with a cost reduction of 20,000 yuan per ton. After an electronics factory adopted recycled nickel for electroplating processing, its annual raw material cost decreased by 1.2 million yuan, and the product defect rate dropped from 3% to 1.2%. Against the backdrop of 20% fluctuations in international nickel prices in 2024, the cost increase of battery enterprises using 30% recycled nickel was only 6%, highlighting the supply chain's risk resistance capability.
The expansion of industrial scale has driven employment growth. Currently, there are over 12,000 lithium battery recycling outlets in China, and links such as crushing, sorting, and purification processing have directly created more than 80,000 jobs. As China's lithium-ion battery recovery volume is expected to reach 4.246 million tons by 2030, the recycled nickel industry will form a multi-win pattern integrating resource circulation, environmental protection, and economic development, providing solid support for the achievement of the "dual carbon" goals.
Industry experts point out that driven by both technological breakthroughs and policy dividends, recycled nickel from waste lithium-ion batteries is transforming from a supplementary resource to a primary resource. In the future, it will play a more critical role in new energy vehicles, high-end manufacturing, and other fields, promoting China's transition from a "resource-dependent" to a "circular and sustainable" industrial system.
