Battery Manufacturing Resource Assessment to Minimise Component Production Environmental Impacts

Abstract

A promising route to attain a reliable impact reduction of supply chain materials is based on considering circular economy approaches, such as material recycling strategies. This work aimed to evaluate potential benefits of recycling scenarios for steel, copper, aluminium and plastic materials to the battery manufacturing stage. Focused on this aim, the life cycle assessment (LCA) and the environmental externalities methodologies were applied to two battery study cases: lithium manganese oxide and vanadium redox flow (VRFB) batteries, based on a cradle-to-gate LCA approach. In general, the results provided an insight into the raw material handling route. Environmental impacts were diminished by more than 20% in almost all the indicators, due to the lower consumption of virgin materials related to the implemented recyclability route. Particularly, VRFB exhibited better recyclability ratio than the Li-ion battery. For the former, the key components were the periphery ones attaining around 70% of impact reduction by recycling steel. Components of the power subsystem were also relevant, reaching around 40% of environmental impact reduction by recycling plastic. The results also foresaw opportunities for membranes, key components of VRFB materials. Based on findings, recycling strategies may improve the total circularity performance and economic viability of the studied systems.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) for flow batteries: A review of methodological decisions

“…Some of the LCA studies address a cradle to grave/cradle assessmentincluding extraction of raw materials, parts manufacturing, transportation and use stage, as well as EoL [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Other LCA studies focus on cradle to gate (see, for example [20,21]) or cradle to operation (see, for example [22]). Analyzing only selected life-cycle stages, such as cradle to gate assessment, leaves room for trade-offs and should be noticed when drawing conclusions.…”

“…The functional unit (fU) is in most of the examined studies defined consistent and focuses on the provision of 1 kWh [20,21,23,24]; or 1 MWh [14,18] of energy (see also ESM, Table 2). Nevertheless, the definitions answer only two out of four of the methodological questions ("what does it do?"…”

Healthy Power: Reimagining Hospitals as Sustainable Energy Hubs

“…The valuable vanadium in the electrolyte can be easily recovered for use in a new battery system or other applications. The balance of material is predominately carbon, metals and polymers that can also be recovered and recycled at end of life [36].…”

Assessment of Potential Barriers to the Implementation of an Innovative AB-FB Energy Storage System under a Sustainable Perspective

“…This characteristic positively influences the electrolyte environmental implications in contrast to the vanadium-based electrolyte, whose main component, vanadium, is listed as a critical raw material [13]. Impacts related to the vanadium-based electrolyte of the VRFB have been extensively reported in the literature as the main constraint on its environmental performance in the manufacturing stage [14,15]. Regarding the economic aspects, the AB-FB system has also been recognised as providing competitive costs compared with the VRFB system.…”