Toward a cell‐chemistry specific life cycle assessment of lithium‐ion battery recycling processes

Bibliographic Data

ID19468696
AuthorsMarit Mohr (Helmholtz Institute Ulm Ulm Germany), Jens F Peters (0000-0002-4802-7806, Department of Economics Universidad de Alcalá Madrid Spain, corresponding author), Manuel Baumann (0000-0002-8374-4624, Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis Karlsruhe Germany), Marcel Weil (0000-0003-0151-9990, Helmholtz Institute Ulm Ulm Germany)
Year2020
Volume24
Issue6
Pages1310-1322
Publication date2020-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Industrial Ecology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1088-1980 • E-ISSN: 1530-9290
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/jiec.13021
OpenAlexW3036757788
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited22

On the basis of a review of existing life cycle assessment studies on lithium‐ion battery recycling, we parametrize process models of state‐of‐the‐art pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical recycling, enabling their application to different cell chemistries, including beyond‐lithium batteries such as sodium‐ion batteries. These processes are used as benchmark for evaluating an advanced hydrometallurgical recycling process, which is modeled on the basis of primary data obtained from a recycling company, quantifying the potential reduction of environmental impacts that can be achieved by the recycling of different cell chemistries. Depending on the cell chemistry, recycling can reduce significantly the potential environmental impacts of battery production. The highest benefit is obtained via advanced hydrometallurgical treatment for lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide and lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide‐type batteries, mainly because of the recovery of cobalt and nickel. Especially under resource depletion aspects, recycling of these cells can reduce their impact to an extent that even leads to a lower “net impact” than that of cells made from majorly abundant and cheap materials like lithium iron phosphate, which shows a more favorable performance when recycling is disregarded. For these cells, recycling does not necessarily provide benefits but can rather cause additional environmental impacts. This indicates that maximum material recovery might not always be favorable under environmental aspects and that, especially for the final hydrometallurgical treatment, the process would need to be adapted to the specific cell chemistry, if one wants to obtain maximum environmental benefit

Cobalt · Cobalt oxide · Environmental impact assessment · Life-cycle assessment · Process engineering · Waste management · Advanced battery technologies research · Chemistry · Engineering · Environmental Science · Extraction and Separation Processes · Recycling and Waste Management Techniques · Inorganic Chemistry

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