Keywords:batteries electricity mix global warming industrial ecology life cycle inventory (LCI) transportation Supporting information is available on the JIE Web site SummaryElectric vehicles (EVs) coupled with low-carbon electricity sources offer the potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to tailpipe emissions from personal transportation. In considering these benefits, it is important to address concerns of problemshifting. In addition, while many studies have focused on the use phase in comparing transportation options, vehicle production is also significant when comparing conventional and EVs. We develop and provide a transparent life cycle inventory of conventional and electric vehicles and apply our inventory to assess conventional and EVs over a range of impact categories. We find that EVs powered by the present European electricity mix offer a 10% to 24% decrease in global warming potential (GWP) relative to conventional diesel or gasoline vehicles assuming lifetimes of 150,000 km. However, EVs exhibit the potential for significant increases in human toxicity, freshwater eco-toxicity, freshwater eutrophication, and metal depletion impacts, largely emanating from the vehicle supply chain. Results are sensitive to assumptions regarding electricity source, use phase energy consumption, vehicle lifetime, and battery replacement schedules. Because production impacts are more significant for EVs than conventional vehicles, assuming a vehicle lifetime of 200,000 km exaggerates the GWP benefits of EVs to 27% to 29% relative to gasoline vehicles or 17% to 20% relative to diesel. An assumption of 100,000 km decreases the benefit of EVs to 9% to 14% with respect to gasoline vehicles and results in impacts indistinguishable from those of a diesel vehicle. Improving the environmental profile of EVs requires engagement around reducing vehicle production supply chain impacts and promoting clean electricity sources in decision making regarding electricity infrastructure.

Electric vehicles have no tailpipe emissions, but the production of their batteries leads to environmental burdens. In order to avoid problem-shifting, a life cycle perspective should be applied in the environmental assessment of traction batteries. The goal of this study is to provide a transparent inventory for a lithium-ion nickel-cobalt-manganese traction battery based on primary data and to report its cradle-to-gate impacts. The study was carried out as a processbased attributional life cycle assessment. The environmental impacts were analyzed using midpoint indicators. The global warming potential of the 26.6 kilowatt-hour (kWh), 253 kg battery pack was found to be 4.6 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalents. Regardless of impact category, the production impacts of the battery are caused mainly by the production chains of battery cell manufacture, the positive electrode paste, and the negative current collector. The robustness of the study was tested through sensitivity analysis, and results were compared with preceding studies. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the most effective approach to reduce climate change emissions would be to produce the battery cells with electricity from a cleaner energy mix. On a per-kWh basis, cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas emissions of the battery are within the range of those reported in preceding studies. Contribution and structural path analysis allowed for identification of the most impact-intensive processes and value chains. This article provides an inventory based mainly on primary data, which can easily be adapted to subsequent EV studies, and offers improved understanding of environmental burdens pertaining to lithium ion traction batteries.3

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has become a key technology in climate change mitigation programs worldwide. CCS is well-studied in terms of greenhouse gas emission reduction potential and cost of implementation. Impacts on human health and the environment have, however, received considerably less attention. In this work, we present a first assessment of human health and environmental impacts of a postcombustion CO(2) capture facility, focusing on emissions from amine-based scrubbing solvents and their degradation products to air. We develop characterization factors for human toxicity for monoethanolamine (MEA) as these were not yet available. On the basis of the limited information available, our assessment indicates that amine-based scrubbing results in a 10-fold increase in toxic impact on freshwater ecosystems and a minor increase in toxic impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. These increases are attributed to emissions of monoethanolamine. For all other impact categories, i.e., human toxicity, marine ecotoxicity, particulate matter formation, photochemical oxidant formation, and terrestrial acidification, the CO(2) capture facility performs equally well to a conventional NGCC power plant, albeit substantial changes in flue gas composition. The oxidative degradation products of MEA, i.e., formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and ammonia, do not contribute significantly to total environmental impacts.

The primary goal of this study is to investigate the effect of increasing battery size and driving range to the environmental impact of electric vehicles (EVs). To this end, we compile cradle-to-grave inventories for EVs in four size segments to determine their climate change potential. A second objective is to compare the lifecycle emissions of EVs to those of conventional vehicles. For this purpose, we collect lifecycle emissions for conventional vehicles reported by automobile manufacturers. The lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions are calculated per vehicle and over a total driving range of 180 000 km using the average European electricity mix. Process-based attributional LCA and the ReCiPe characterisation method are used to estimate the climate change potential from the hierarchical perspective. The differently sized EVs are compared to one another to find the effect of increasing the size and range of EVs. We also point out the sources of differences in lifecycle emissions between conventional-and electric vehicles. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis assesses the change in lifecycle emissions when electricity with various energy sources power the EVs. The sensitivity analysis also examines how the use phase electricity sources influences the size and range effect.

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