Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Typical Cathode Materials of Lithium-Ion Battery Based on Three LCA Approaches

Lei Wang,Yajuan Yu,Kai Huang,Yuchen Hu,Haohui Wu

doi:10.3390/pr7020083

Lei Wang, Yajuan Yu + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/pr7020083

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Abstract

With the rapid increase in production of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and environmental issues arising around the world, cathode materials, as the key component of all LIBs, especially need to be environmentally sustainable. However, a variety of life cycle assessment (LCA) methods increase the difficulty of environmental sustainability assessment. Three authoritative LCAs, IMPACT 2002+, Eco-indicator 99(EI-99), and ReCiPe, are used to assess three traditional marketization cathode materials, compared with a new cathode model, FeF3(H2O)3/C. They all show that four cathode models are ranked by a descending sequence of environmental sustainable potential: FeF3(H2O)3/C, LiFe0.98Mn0.02PO4/C, LiFePO4/C, and LiCoO2/C in total values. Human health is a common issue regarding these four cathode materials. Lithium is the main contributor to the environmental impact of the latter three cathode materials. At the midpoint level in different LCAs, the toxicity and land issues for LiCoO2/C, the non-renewable resource consumption for LiFePO4/C, the metal resource consumption for LiFe0.98Mn0.02PO4/C, and the mineral refinement for FeF3(H2O)3/C show relatively low environmental sustainability. Three LCAs have little influence on total endpoint and element contribution values. However, at the midpoint level, the indicator with the lowest environmental sustainability for the same cathode materials is different in different methodologies.

Highlights

With the expansion of the lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) market, new cathode materials are constantly being developed [1].In terms of weight fraction and cost, the cathode part for LIB is the most significant sector [2].long-standing effort has been devoted to the development of high energy density and capability cathode materials [3], meeting the demand of electric vehicles, power tools, and large electric power storage units [4]
[26] ReCiPe assesses 18 impact categories at midpoint level, and three endpoint categories at endpoint level [27]. Based on these three life cycle assessment (LCA), we divide the results into four innovative parts: (1) according to the total value of four different cathode materials, we have a preliminary understanding of the environmental sustainability ranking of these four cathode materials; (2) according to the endpoint value, we find one common environmental problem of the four cathode materials; (3) from the midpoint value, indicators showing the best or worst environmental sustainability of four cathode materials are summarized; (4) from the perspective of element contribution, the key elements that have obvious influence on the environmental sustainability of these four cathode materials are found
It is necessary to qualify the total environmental impact of these four cathode materials before a deeper investigation, because all midpoint and endpoint indicators are divided from the total environmental impact

Summary

Introduction

With the expansion of the LIBs market, new cathode materials are constantly being developed [1].In terms of weight fraction and cost, the cathode part for LIB is the most significant sector [2].long-standing effort has been devoted to the development of high energy density and capability cathode materials [3], meeting the demand of electric vehicles, power tools, and large electric power storage units [4]. With the expansion of the LIBs market, new cathode materials are constantly being developed [1]. In terms of weight fraction and cost, the cathode part for LIB is the most significant sector [2]. Long-standing effort has been devoted to the development of high energy density and capability cathode materials [3], meeting the demand of electric vehicles, power tools, and large electric power storage units [4]. With the increase in energy density and capacity, many trace. LIBs have an increasing impact on the environment [5]. Modern society must overcome many difficulties, such as obtaining natural resources and protecting the natural environment [4]. Before we commercialize a new cathode model, its environmental cost should be considered

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