At present, a green economy has become a common goal pursued by countries around the world. Under the goals of 'dual carbon neutrality', China is accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system that is green and low-carbon, using the greening of industries to promote the economy to move towards a new channel of high-quality development. The recycling and reuse of waste transformers, due to their advantages such as energy saving, environmental protection, and resource recycling, have become an indispensable important link in China's green environmental protection cause and are increasingly receiving widespread attention. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and eight other departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Coordinating Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction with Recycling and Utilization and Accelerating the Update and Transformation of Key Product Equipment", along with the "Implementation Guidelines for the Update and Transformation and Recycling and Utilization of Power Transformers (2023 Edition)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Guidelines"). These guidelines coordinate the work of updating and transforming power transformers for energy saving and carbon reduction, as well as the recycling and utilization of waste transformers. They have clear ideas, specific measures, and clear tasks, and are of great guiding significance for promoting the green and high-quality development of the power transformer industrial chain.
The pollution problem of waste transformers is becoming increasingly prominent
Transformers are an important part of the power system, playing a key role in power generation, transmission and distribution, and other links, and have become widely used electrical equipment in various industries of the national economy. Generally speaking, from power generation, power supply to power consumption, 3-5 voltage transformations are needed, so transformer products play an important role in all links of the power grid system. Statistics show that there are about 17 million transformers in operation in our country, with a total capacity of about 11 billion kVA. However, with the aging of transformers and the continuous updating and upgrading of technology, the problem of dealing with waste transformers has become increasingly prominent.
As one of the world's largest transformer producing countries, China has a considerable number of waste transformers every year, and the environmental pollution caused by safe incineration treatment is becoming increasingly serious. Due to the presence of a large number of organic substances and heavy metals harmful to the environment and human body in waste transformers, they seriously endanger the environment and human health.
Overall, China's power transformers have a high proportion of losses, and problems such as low recycling and regeneration processing level of waste equipment and low raw material reuse rate are prominent, which restrict the process of high-quality development of the industry.
At the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to accelerate the formation of green production and lifestyles. In light of this, carrying out people-oriented green actions, accelerating the green transformation of development patterns, enhancing the diversity, stability, and sustainability of ecosystems, and comprehensively promoting ecological priority, intensive and thrifty use of resources, and green development have become important current tasks. In today's era of pursuing sustainable development and increasing environmental awareness, finding effective ways to improve the energy reuse level of waste transformers has become particularly important.
What is transformer recycling? Transformer recycling refers to the comprehensive processing and reuse of waste, retired, aged, or damaged transformers. These waste transformers contain a large amount of metals and other recyclable materials, such as iron, copper, and oil. By recycling and reusing these materials, the demand for primary mineral resources can be reduced, energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions can be lowered.
Highly value the recycling market to promote a circular economy
The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has made important arrangements for actively and prudently promoting carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Currently, energy conservation and carbon reduction have become a mandatory question for enterprises to pursue green development. The Implementation Guidelines have pointed out the direction and path for promoting the green development of related industries such as power transformers. It clarifies that the supply side should focus on energy conservation and carbon reduction, strengthen key core technology research and development in production and manufacturing, structural design and process technology innovation, select high-quality raw materials and components, improve production quality and supply capacity, and enhance the digitalization, intelligence and green level of transformers. It also clarifies that the demand side should comprehensively consider factors such as power supply reliability, energy efficiency improvement, and equipment utilization value, actively and prudently promote energy conservation and carbon reduction transformation of in-service power transformers, prioritize the procurement of power transformers with energy efficiency level 2 or above, and accelerate the transformation of old aluminum coils, transformers with inherent defects, low-voltage transformer districts, and heavily overloaded transformers.
It also proposes that by 2025, the proportion of highly efficient and energy-saving power transformers in operation with energy efficiency reaching the energy-saving level (energy efficiency level 2) or above will increase by more than 10 percentage points compared to 2021, and the proportion of newly added highly efficient and energy-saving power transformers that year will reach more than 80%; the recycling and disposal system for waste power transformers will be more perfect.
In accordance with the spirit and requirements put forward in the Government Work Report, such as "promoting the green transformation of development methods; deeply advancing environmental pollution prevention and control; developing a circular economy, promoting the intensive and economical utilization of resources, and promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction in key areas", society as a whole attaches great importance to the transformer recycling market and promotes the high-quality development of the resource recycling industry.
The main significance of transformer recycling and reuse lies in:
First, conserve natural resources. For example, materials such as cores, windings, and oils in scrap transformers can be efficiently separated and extracted. After processing, these materials can be reused. Recycled cores can be made into new transformer materials, and recycled oils can have suitable acid values extracted for use in lubricants. Recycling these materials not only reduces the consumption of natural resources but also saves the human, material, and financial resources required to manufacture new transformers.
Second, practice environmental protection concepts. Recycling scrap transformers helps reduce waste generation and disposal, effectively lowering environmental pollution. Harmful substances contained in scrap transformers, such as oil sludge, cadmium, and lead, can cause severe pollution and harm to the environment if discarded or burned without proper handling. Through professional transformer recycling and treatment, safe disposal of waste can be ensured, reducing negative environmental impacts. The regenerated resources obtained after recycling and treatment can replace raw materials, fundamentally solving environmental pollution problems.
Third, develop a circular economy. Transformer recycling and reuse not only serve an environmental purpose but also promote the development of related industries, which is necessary for the transformer industry to develop a circular economy and take a green transformation path. With the continuous improvement of domestic transformer industry technology levels, market demand is also growing. Transformer recycling enterprises can provide the transformer industry with more environmentally friendly raw materials, first-class technical and equipment services, while also creating jobs and promoting social and economic development.
Transformer recycling has become a new business model
With the replacement of a large number of new and old transformers and the upgrading of technology, the recycling market for scrap transformers has been continuously emerging. Currently, the number of transformer recycling enterprises is increasing, and the market is also very active. However, under the "prosperous" appearance, there are still many problems and challenges.
A review of the recycling market in recent years shows: 1. The order of the transformer recycling market is chaotic. Transformer recycling enterprises and illegal operating enterprises use flexible means to acquire scrapped transformers at high prices on a large scale, and even scrapped transformers flow into the black market in forms such as "changing nameplates". 2. The industry entry threshold is low, and the overall level of recycling and dismantling enterprises is low. They adopt an extensive management approach, have backward technical means, simple equipment, and unstandardized and non-environmentally friendly recycling and dismantling operations. 3. The profit fluctuation range of recycling enterprises is large. Various irregular business models have led to instability in industry prices, affecting the sustainable and healthy development of the industry. 4. Relevant detailed rules and specifications for recycling and dismantling are missing. The whole industry has not formed a unified specification for the recycling and dismantling of scrap transformers. There are no corresponding standardized details available for promotion and guidance for different types of transformers during the dismantling process. 5. Safety hazards cannot be ignored. Due to the uneven size of recycling enterprises, there are problems such as lack of qualified dismantling equipment, oil storage equipment, and fire-fighting facilities in some recycling enterprises, posing great safety hazards in terms of environmental protection and fire prevention.
In fact, China's regeneration processing level of scrap power transformers is relatively low, and the reuse rate of raw materials is not high. It is necessary to further strengthen coordination, promote the updating and transformation of power transformers and their recycling and utilization, and promote the smooth circulation of the industrial chain.
Greening is a fundamental characteristic of the modern industrial system. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to "build a green manufacturing system and service system, and increase the proportion of green and low-carbon industries in the total economic output." Focusing on the key task of vigorously promoting advanced energy-saving and carbon-reduction technologies, the Implementation Guidelines not only propose the direction and specific requirements for the green transformation and development of transformers but also bring good business opportunities to the recycling market. Its specific contents include: continuously enhancing the supply capacity of high-efficiency and energy-saving power transformers; orderly implementing energy-saving and carbon-reduction retrofits for in-service power transformers; giving priority to retrofitting old main transformers and S7 (including S8) high-energy-consuming distribution transformers; gradually phasing out inefficient and backward power transformers; strictly implementing the mandatory national standard "Energy Efficiency Limits and Energy Efficiency Grades of Power Transformers" (GB 20052), and banning the production and sale of power transformers with an energy efficiency level lower than Grade 3, etc.
Notably, the Implementation Guidelines also clarify measures such as the disposal of retired power transformers, appraisal for scrapping, registration of operators engaged in the recycling of regenerated resources, information registration, and waste disposal. It encourages enterprises to recover old transformers through methods like trade-in, and supports the development of specialized, centralized, and intelligent dismantling and recycling, thereby promoting the smooth circulation of the entire power transformer industrial chain.
Transformer recycling is an important environmental technology project and also a market-attractive industry. With the continuous growth of market demand, transformer recycling and remanufacturing have become a new business model. By protecting environmental resources and promoting innovative technologies, it will play a significant role in advancing the construction of a 'green economy'.
In China's 14th Five-Year Plan Outline, building a new industrial structure featuring green, low-carbon, and circular development is of utmost importance. With the increasing social awareness of environmental protection and the promotion of environmental policies, the market prospects for transformer recycling are very promising. In the future, a more complete transformer recycling system will be gradually established to promote the development and innovation of related technologies, thereby making the recycling and disassembly of waste transformers more efficient, environmentally friendly, and economically viable. By advocating sustainable socioeconomic development, transformer recycling services can more effectively drive China's energy and economic transformation. With the rise of the "green economy," the transformer recycling service industry will embrace broader development space. (Transformer Circle)
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