来源：《自然》
原文刊登日期：2021年6月29日
文章结构
1-4段：锂电池的生产消耗大量的能源和水，缓解的办法是加强锂电池的再利用。
5-8段：有的国家提出增强锂电池的回收，但这会带来其他环境问题。
第九段：锂电池再利用是更好的解决办法。
A low-carbon future rests on an essential, yet also problematic, technology. Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries — already widely used in laptops and smartphones — will be the beating heart of electric vehicles and much else. They are also needed to help power the world’s electric grids, because renewable sources, such as solar and wind energy, still cannot provide energy 24 hours a day. The market for lithium-ion batteries is projected by the industry to grow from US$30 billion in 2017 to $100 billion in 2025.
低碳未来依赖于一项重要但也有问题的技术。锂离子可充电电池——已经广泛应用于笔记本电脑和智能手机——将成为电动汽车和许多其它产品的“心脏”。它们还有助于为世界电网供电，因为太阳能和风能等可再生能源仍不能一天24小时提供能源。锂离子电池市场预计将从2017年的300亿美元增长到2025年的1000亿美元。
But this increase is not itself cost-free. Lithium-ion technology has downsides — for people and the planet. Extracting the raw materials, mainly lithium, requires large quantities of energy and water.
但这种增长本身并不是没有代价的。锂离子技术对人类和地球都有不利之处。提取原料(主要是锂)，需要大量的能源和水。
Policymakers, industry leaders and researchers need to mitigate these problems, and quickly, to reduce the unintended consequences of an important technology. One crucial intervention, which needs further study, is the acceleration of battery reuse instead of, or in addition to, recycling them or disposing of them in landfills.
政策制定者、行业领导者和研究人员需要迅速缓解这些问题，以减少一项重要技术带来的意外后果。需要进一步研究的一项关键干预措施是加速电池的再利用，而不是仅仅将其回收或在垃圾填埋场销毁。
Around one-third of the world’s lithium — the major component of the batteries — comes from salt flats in Argentina and Chile, where the material is mined using huge quantities of water in an otherwise dry area. Battery-grade lithium can also be produced by exposing the material to very high temperatures — a process used in Australia — which consumes large quantities of energy.
世界上大约三分之一的锂（电池的主要成分）来自阿根廷和智利的盐滩，在那里，锂材料是在一个原本干燥的地区用大量的水开采的。电池级锂也可以通过将材料暴露在非常高的温度下来生产——这是在澳大利亚使用的一种工艺——但会消耗大量的能源。
Many countries are aware that mining needs to be done responsibly and more sustainably. Yet some are advocating policies — especially in battery recycling — that risk having a detrimental impact on the environment.
许多国家都意识到，采矿工作需要负责任地进行，而且要更加可持续。然而，一些国家正在倡导的政策可能对环境产生有害影响，特别是在电池回收方面。
The European Union, for example, requires companies to collect batteries at the end of their life and either repurpose them or dismantle them for recycling. The current requirement is for 45% of the EU’s used batteries to be collected — but few of these are lithium-ion batteries. This is partly because such batteries are often built into the devices they power and are hard to dismantle, or the devices themselves are valuable, which means they are likely to be exported for resale and disappear from the EU unreported. Meanwhile, the EU is considering a 70% target for batteries to be collected by 2030. In addition, it wants 4% of the lithium in new batteries made in the EU to be from recycled material by 2030, increasing to 10% by 2035.
例如，欧盟要求企业在电池寿命结束时回收电池，要么重新利用，要么拆解回收。目前的要求是回收欧盟45%的废旧电池，但其中很少有锂离子电池。这在一定程度上是因为这些电池通常内置在它们所供电的设备中，而且很难拆卸，或者这些设备本身很有价值，这意味着它们很可能被出口转售，然后在没有报告的情况下从欧盟消失。与此同时，欧盟正在考虑到2030年将电池回收量提高70%的目标。此外，欧盟希望到2030年，生产的新电池中有4%的锂来自回收材料，到2035年这一比例将提高到10%。
Such requirements could have unintended consequences. As batteries improve, they will last longer. But if the EU mandates a higher collection rate, companies might feel compelled to take them out of service prematurely — to meet the numerical collection target — even though they could still have useful life left.
这样的要求可能会产生意想不到的后果。随着电池的改进，它们的使用时间会更长。但如果欧盟强制要求更高的回收率，企业可能会感到必须提前终止服务，以达到回收率目标，尽管电池可能仍有使用寿命。
Similarly, there could be adverse consequences to mandating the inclusion of more recycled material in lithium-ion batteries. There’s already a shortage of recycled material. So, to satisfy the new recycling rules, Europe’s manufacturers could need to import recycled material. This would have a considerable carbon footprint because places beyond Europe consume more energy in producing recycled lithium. There is also a risk that battery production will stall because there isn’t enough recycled material available.
同样，要求在锂离子电池中使用更多可回收材料也会产生不良后果。回收材料已经很短缺了。因此，为了满足新的回收规则，欧洲的制造商可能需要进口回收材料。这将产生相当大的碳足迹，因为欧洲以外的地方在生产可回收锂时消耗的能源更多。由于没有足够的可回收材料，电池生产也存在停滞的风险。
Battery reuse is one potential solution that more countries should be considering — a target for reuse is not yet part of the EU proposal. Although batteries do eventually run out completely, many are taken out of use when they have merely become inefficient for a particular use, such as powering a car, but still have plenty of life in them for less-intensive applications, such as renewable-energy storage.
电池再利用是一个潜在的解决方案，更多的国家应该考虑——再利用的目标还没有列入欧盟的提案中。虽然电池最终会完全坏掉，但很多电池只是在特定用途(如为汽车供电)变得低效时就不再使用了，但在较低强度的用途(如可再生能源存储)上仍有足够的使用寿命。