Life Cycle Assessment of an NMC Battery for Application to Electric Light-Duty Commercial Vehicles and Comparison with a Sodium-Nickel-Chloride Battery

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an environmental assessment of a Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) Lithium-ion traction battery for Battery Electric Light-Duty Commercial Vehicles (BEV-LDCV) used for urban and regional freight haulage. A cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of NMC111 is provided, operation and end-of-life stages are included, and insight is also given into a Life Cycle Assessment of different NMC chemistries. The environmental impacts of the manufacturing stages of the NMC111 battery are then compared with those of a Sodium-Nickel-Chloride (ZEBRA) battery. In the second part of the work, two electric-battery LDCVs (powered with NMC111 and ZEBRA batteries, respectively) and a diesel urban LDCV are analysed, considering a wide set of environmental impact categories. The results show that the NMC111 battery has the highest impacts from production in most of the impact categories. Active cathode material, Aluminium, Copper, and energy use for battery production are the main contributors to the environmental impact. However, when vehicle application is investigated, NMC111-BEV shows lower environmental impacts, in all the impact categories, than ZEBRA-BEV. This is mainly due to the greater efficiency of the NMC111 battery during vehicle operation. Finally, when comparing BEVs to a diesel LDCV, the electric powertrains show advantages over the diesel one as far as global warming, abiotic depletion potential-fossil fuels, photochemical oxidation, and ozone layer depletion are concerned. However, the diesel LDCV performs better in almost all the other investigated impact categories.

Separation of nickel from cobalt and manganese in lithium ion batteries using deep eutectic solvents

“…Historically, LiCoO 2 and LiMn 2 O 4 have been used as cathode active materials in EV LIBs, although over the last decade there have been developments into different materials such as LiFePO 4 (LFP), LiNiCoAlO 2 (NCA) and LiNiMnCoO 2 (LiNMC), in which the ratios of nickel, manganese, and cobalt can vary depending on both the manufacturer and also within a manufacturer's fleet. 54,55 This variability in cathode chemistry will result in a waste stream that will have different LiNMC compositions, and it is likely that even in the future there will be mixed cathode chemistries needed to be recycled because of EoL car batteries being diverted into second life applications, or the continuance of EVs in the second hand car market. 56,57 While this variability in waste stream composition is likely to be problematic for the direct recycling of LIB cathodes, with the subsequent requirements for variable amounts of processing chemicals for each batch of electrodes, the ability to enrich a nickel-bearing phase is important because manufacturers are shifting towards the use of LiNMC-811 as the active cathode material.…”

System dynamics-based assessment of novel transport options adoption in India

“…Similarly, Accardo et al. ( 2021 ) had performed detailed LCA of NMC battery manufacturing and recycling processes. They have reported the life cycle inventory for electricity and natural gas required for manufacturing and recycling 1 kg battery pack.…”

Investigation of Potential Recovery Rates of Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt, and Particularly Lithium from NMC-Type Cathode Materials (LiNixMnyCozO2) by Carbo-Thermal Reduction in an Inductively Heated Carbon Bed Reactor

“…The process idea is to prevent lithium from being slagged and to recover it as a part of the gas phase instead. First trials, presented in [5], already showed that the amount of slag obtained is significantly lower than what should be expected from other pyrometallurgical processes [32,33]. However, it has not yet been proven if lithium can actually be removed via the gas phase.…”