Prospective Life Cycle Assessment of a Structural Battery

Abstract

With increasing interest in reducing fossil fuel emissions, more and more development is focused on electric mobility. For electric vehicles, the main challenge is the mass of the batteries, which significantly increase the mass of the vehicles and limits their range. One possible concept to solve this is incorporating structural batteries; a structural material that both stores electrical energy and carries mechanical load. The concept envisions constructing the body of an electric vehicle with this material and thus reducing the need for further energy storage. This research is investigating a future structural battery that is incorporated in the roof of an electric vehicle. The structural battery is replacing the original steel roof of the vehicle, and part of the original traction battery. The environmental implications of this structural battery roof are investigated with a life cycle assessment, which shows that a structural battery roof can avoid climate impacts in substantive quantities. The main emissions for the structural battery stem from its production and efforts should be focused there to further improve the environmental benefits of the structural battery. Toxicity is investigated with a novel chemical risk assessment from a life cycle perspective, which shows that two chemicals should be targeted for substitution.

How to Conduct Prospective Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies? A Systematic Review and Methodological Guidance

“…Nonetheless, risk assessment for newly introduced chemicals can take decades [18]. Still, Zackrisson et al [65] show how to perform a qualitative chemical risk assessment when performing prospective LCA. In the case of assessments in the early-design stage, data availability is often limited, and consequently, the determination of all impact categories is mostly impossible [66].…”

“…In the other case studies, the ecoinvent database or literature is used to illustrate the background processes. In order to emphasize the origin of the data (lab-scale or commercial-scale data) and whether the data concerns the fore-or background, a color code within the system describing flow sheet is helpful [65,[71][72][73][74].…”

Structural Batteries: A Review

“…This concept was then used to estimate the multifunctional capabilities of relevant structures, such as an interior panel of an aircraft, an EV roof, and an electric ferry, showing potential mass savings. In a follow-up study, this concept was used by Zackrisson et al [ 34 ] as the base for a preliminary estimation of the environmental implications related to the introduction of this technology in the EVs market. This work considered the replacement of a steel EV roof with a structural battery and analyzed all the implications on its full life cycle, including production, use, and recycling.…”

“…This concept was then used to estimate the multifunctional capabilities of relevant structures, such as an interior panel of an aircraft, an EV roof, and an electric ferry, showing potential mass savings. In a follow-up study, this concept was used by Zackrisson et al [34] as the base for a preliminary estimation of the environmental implications related to An alternative interpretation of the optimization of the multifunctional materials was proposed by Johannisson et al [28]. This approach instead focused on calculating the mass of the structural battery m SB and compared it to the combined mass of an equivalent carbon fiber composite plate m CC and of a standard lithium-ion battery m LiB .…”

Adopting an Actor Analysis Framework to a Complex Technology Innovation Project: A Case Study of an Electric Road System

“…Replacing a majority of internal combustion engines (ICEs) with EVs will result in a significant reduction in CO 2 emissions in the road transportation section [3]. However, the bottleneck in EV implementation is the limitation of current energy storage technology, most notably the energy density of the battery, charging time, and battery life-cycle [4]. An electric road system (ERS) is defined as a transportation system where vehicles receive dynamic power transfer while in motion [5].…”