North Star Recycling was invited to attend the Green Energy Industry Chain Special Session to discuss the new future of green development in the industry.

On August 28, the Qingdao Municipal Government Information Office held the fifth session of the "Shandong Good Brands on the Industrial Chain" media conference series—the Green Energy Industry Chain Special Session. Ju Long, Deputy Director of the Dongfang Electric Wind Power Industry and Market Development Center and General Manager of Dongfang Electric Wind Power (Qingdao) New Energy Co., Ltd.; Zhang Ligang, Chairman of Qingdao Hanhe Cable Co., Ltd.; Liu Gang, General Manager of Guangzhou Great Power Energy (Qingdao) Co., Ltd.; Zhang Tao, Chairman of North Star Advanced Recycling Technology (Qingdao) Co., Ltd.; and Li Rongzhong, General Manager of Qingdao Ray Measurement and Innovation Technology Co., Ltd., attended the conference and answered questions from journalists.

North Star Advanced Recycling Technology (Qingdao) Co., Ltd., established in August 2020 and headquartered in Chengyang District, Qingdao, is a technology-driven innovative enterprise focused on providing low-carbon, green recycling solutions for waste from emerging industries such as decommissioned lithium-ion batteries, photovoltaic modules, wind turbine components, and fuel cells.

As a global technology leader in the recycling of retired power batteries, North Star Recycling offers end-to-end solutions encompassing battery collection, transportation, dismantling, regeneration, and material recovery. By delivering green recycling processes, intelligent equipment systems, and low-carbon recycled materials, we assist clients in building advanced battery recycling bases and establishing sustainable supply systems for key battery materials, contributing a distinctive "China Solution" to global low-carbon transformation.

The company has been recognized with multiple certifications, including the "Qingdao Innovative Application Laboratory for Low-Carbon Recycling of Retired Power Batteries," "Qingdao Innovative SME," "Qingdao New Economy Potential Enterprise," and "Specialized, Refined, Unique, and Innovative SME." It has also been successfully included in the MIIT’s compliance list for the industry standards of comprehensive utilization of waste power batteries from new energy vehicles.

We place great emphasis on technological R&D and collaborative innovation with academia and industry, maintaining long-term in-depth partnerships with renowned institutions such as Tsinghua University, China University of Mining and Technology, and Beijing Institute of Technology. Our production base integrates R&D, design, production, and operations, dedicated to innovating and implementing advanced recycling technologies while providing customers with comprehensive solutions covering resource utilization and carbon footprint management.

In August 2024, the Qingdao demonstration project, with an annual processing capacity of 10,000 tons for recycling and 30,000 tons for echelon utilization of retired power batteries, was fully completed and put into operation. As the new energy industry continues to develop rapidly, the volume of retired batteries is increasing year by year. Battery recycling has become a critical link connecting the "Two New" strategy and the circular economy system, boasting huge market potential and rapidly emerging as a new growth point in the green energy industry.

Simultaneously, we have completed the digital upgrade and technological innovation of the North Star Advanced Recycling Technology demonstration project, achieving safe, standardized, efficient, and low-carbon disposal of retired power batteries. The entire process features traceable carbon footprints, with overall carbon emissions 30% lower than the industry average.

Looking ahead, we will actively respond to the State Council’s "Action Plan for Improving the Recycling System of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles," collaborating with authoritative institutions such as Siemens (China), the Solid Waste Management Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and Tsinghua University to jointly build a battery recycling system under the "Qingdao Model." We will focus on developing data assets and carbon assets in the recycling process and promote the replication and expansion of this model nationwide, continuously injecting new momentum into the global green energy transition.

China News Service Reporter: It is understood that North Star Recycling is engaged in in-depth cooperation with Siemens to explore digitalization and energy-carbon management in the resource recycling sector. Could you elaborate on how the two sides are using AI and digital technologies to promote the transformation and upgrading of the battery recycling industry and what new value this creates for North Star and its customers?

Zhang Tao: For North Star Recycling, the cooperation with Siemens is not just a technical collaboration but a core strategy to advance the resource recycling industry toward digitalization and low-carbon transformation. I will elaborate on three aspects.

First, we have jointly built a digital foundation for "smart energy-carbon management."

Leveraging Siemens’ SiTANJI carbon footprint ecosystem solution, we have created the battery recycling industry’s first blockchain-based real-time carbon footprint actuarial and traceability system. In simple terms, through IoT and edge computing technologies, we collect real-time data on energy consumption, material flow, and recycling processes on production lines. This data is integrated with authoritative carbon emission factor databases at home and abroad to build a high-precision carbon accounting model—certified by TÜV SÜD. This means that for every retired battery, from recycling to regeneration, its carbon footprint can be calculated in real time, dynamically recorded, and stored on the blockchain, making it immutable. This not only provides a scientific basis for our own production emissions reduction but, more importantly, offers downstream customers credible low-carbon data credentials to help them comply with international requirements such as the EU’s new battery regulations and smoothly enter global markets.

Second, AI and smart technologies are fundamentally transforming the operational model of battery recycling.

In this system, artificial intelligence permeates the entire process, from safety identification and intelligent dismantling to material sorting and process optimization: through AI visual recognition, the system can automatically determine battery models, health status, and even the extent of damage, matching the optimal dismantling solution to significantly enhance safety and recycling efficiency; through digital twin technology, we simulate and optimize the entire factory’s operations in a virtual space, identifying bottlenecks in advance and reducing trial-and-error costs; more importantly, based on machine learning, the system dynamically optimizes process parameters during physical sorting, improving the separation and recycling efficiency of all components of retired power batteries, achieving thorough and high-value utilization, and gradually expanding into the hydrometallurgy stage. Thus, we have upgraded traditional "experience-driven" recycling to a modernized circular factory driven by data and intelligent decision-making.

Third, all this ultimately translates into three types of value for our customers and ourselves.

Low-carbon value: Certified carbon reduction credits can become carbon assets for participation in carbon market trading, providing customers with economic benefits in addition to environmental gains;

Trust value: Immutable full-lifecycle carbon traceability data provides internationally recognized "green passports" for recycled battery materials, becoming a rigid demand for automakers and battery manufacturers building green supply chains;

Efficiency value: The smart system reduces comprehensive recycling costs and improves efficiency, ultimately providing customers with more stable and price-competitive recycled materials, alleviating upstream resource pressures.

In summary, our collaboration with Siemens is not simply about retrofitting a production line but about jointly defining new standards for green battery recycling. North Star Recycling’s positioning is evolving from a technology-driven recycling enterprise to a "provider and standard-setter of green recycling system solutions." We also look forward to extending the "digitalized low-carbon recycling" model, successfully validated in Qingdao, nationwide to empower the entire industry and eventually expand into waste from more emerging sectors such as photovoltaic and wind power, contributing Chinese wisdom and strength to global "zero-waste city" initiatives and the circular economy.