Prospective LCA of the production and EoL recycling of a novel type of Li-ion battery for electric vehicles

Abstract

The transport sector as a whole-and within it passenger cars in particular-is currently responsible for a large share of the total greenhouse gas emissions of many developed and developing countries, and a transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is often seen as a key stepping stone towards the de-carbonization of personal mobility. Research is ongoing in the continuous development and improvement of lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries, which may use a range of several different metals in conjunction with lithium itself, such as: lithium manganese oxide (LMO), lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM), and lithium nickel-cobalt-aluminium oxide (NCA). Within the MARS-EV research project, a new cell chemistry has been developed and tested, using a lithium cobalt phosphate (LCP) formulation. This work presents the first life cycle assessment (LCA) for such LCP batteries, including a newly-developed hydrometallurgical battery recycling process which enables the end-of-life recovery of not only the valuable metals, but also of the graphite component, thereby avoiding the associated CO2 emissions.

Recycling of Li−Ni−Mn−Co Hydroxide from Spent Batteries to Produce High‐Performance Supercapacitors with Exceptional Stability

“…[39] The typical mass loading of the asymmetric supercapacitor was 3.2 mg/cm 2 . The capacitance performance of the device can be demonstrated through the CVs at different scan rates (5,10,20,30,40, and 50 mV s À 1 ) as shown in Figure 4b, c. The device shows perfect electrochemical stability within the potential window 0-1.5 V. Moreover, the quasi-rectangular CV shape reveals a prominent faradic/capacitive behavior of the system. The CCCD analysis was carried out at different current densities (0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 A g À 1 ) in the same potential window (0-1.5 V).…”

“…The battery plastic shell was stripped, and one cell was taken from this battery. However, discharge and dismantling are very important steps prior to dealing with the battery cell . For the discharging process, platinum (Pt) wires were connected to the battery poles and submerged into 1 M NaCl as an electrolyte solution for about 24 h or until a complete discharge of the cell.…”

“…However, discharge and dismantling are very important steps prior to dealing with the battery cell. [12,20] For the discharging process, platinum (Pt) wires were connected to the battery poles and submerged into 1 M NaCl as an electrolyte solution for about 24 h or until a complete discharge of the cell. For the manual dismantling, liquid nitrogen was used to deactivate harmful substances.…”

Can electric vehicles significantly reduce our dependence on non-renewable energy? Scenarios of compact vehicles in the UK as a case in point

“…As illustrated in Figure 1, the assessment covers the following vehicle life cycle stages: As already mentioned, End-of-life (EoL) management as well as all associated energy credits arising from the recovered materials were excluded from the present analysis. This decision was principally based on the fact that, while many options are being considered (Ordoñez et al, 2016;Raugei and Winfield, 2017;Wang and Wu, 2017;Yun et al, 2018;Glencore, 2018;Sumito, 2018;Umicore, 2018;), a mature, standardized and widely-adopted take-back and recycling scheme for Li-ion EV batteries is not yet in place. An additional consideration was M A N U S C R I P T…”

Life cycle assessment of emerging technologies: Evaluation techniques at different stages of market and technical maturity

“…The literature on LCA of emerging technologies includes many case studies, variously using terms such as prospective (Mendoza Beltran et al., ; Cooper & Gutowski, ; Raugei & Winfield, ; Sathre et al., ; Wender & Seager, ), early stage (Cramer, ; Hetherington et al., ; Hung, Ellingsen, & Majeau‐Bettez, ), ex ante (Hesser, ; Villares, Işıldar, Van der Giesen, & Guinée, ; Zhou et al., ), anticipatory (Gifford, Chester, Hristovski, & Westerhoff, ; Kendall & Yuan, ; Mattick, Landis, Allenby, & Genovese, ; Ravikumar, Seager, Cucurachi, Prado, & Mutel, ; Tsang, Philippot, Aymonier, & Sonnemann, ; Wender et al., ; Wender, Foley, Guston, Seager, & Wiek, ), explorative (Steubing, Mutel, Suter, & Hellweg, ), and scenario‐based (Arvidsson et al., ) LCA. The diversity of terms mirrors the wide range of available methods and disparate language employed across the LCA community.…”