Energy storage using batteries offers a solution to the intermittent nature of energy production from renewable sources; however, such technology must be sustainable. This Review discusses battery development from a sustainability perspective, considering the energy and environmental costs of state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries and the design of new systems beyond Li-ion. Images: batteries, car, globe: © iStock/Thinkstock.

Towards greener and more sustainable batteries for electrical energy storage

Lithium-ion batteries play an important role in the life quality of modern society as the dominant technology for use in portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops. Beyond this application lithium-ion batteries are the preferred option for the emerging electric vehicle sector, while still underexploited in power supply systems, especially in combination with photovoltaics and wind power. As a technological component, lithium-ion batteries present huge global potential towards energy sustainability and substantial reductions in carbon emissions. A detailed review is presented herein on the state of the art and future perspectives of Li-ion batteries with emphasis on this potential.

The lithium-ion battery: State of the art and future perspectives

Recovery and recycling of lithium: A review

The development of improved rechargeable batteries represents a major technological challenge for this new century, as batteries constitute the limiting components in the shift from petrol (gasoline) powered to electric vehicles, while also enabling the use of more renewable energy on the grid. To minimize the ecological implications associated with their wider use, we must integrate sustainability of battery materials into our research endeavours, choosing chemistries that have a minimum footprint in nature and that are more readily recycled or integrated into a full circular economy. Sustainability and cost concerns require that we greatly increase the battery lifetime and consider second lives for batteries. As part of this, we must monitor the state of health of batteries continuously during operation to minimize their degradation. It is thus important to push the frontiers of operando techniques to monitor increasingly complex processes. In this Review, we will describe key advances in both more sustainable chemistries and operando techniques, along with some of the remaining challenges and possible solutions, as we personally perceive them.

Sustainability and in situ monitoring in battery development

https://escholarship.org/content/qt3tr9v1wc/qt3tr9v1wc.pdf?t=pfroia

Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain Considerations: Analysis of Potential Bottlenecks in Critical Metals

Rechargeable Li-ion battery applications in consumer products are fastly growing, resulting in increasing resources demand: it is for example estimated that battery applications account for nearly 25% of the worldwide cobalt demand in 2007. It is obvious that recycling of batteries may help saving natural resources. However, it is not straightforward to quantify to what extent rechargeable battery recycling saves natural resources, given their complex composition, and the complex international production chain. In this paper, a detailed analysis of a lithium mixed metal oxide battery recycling scenario, where cobalt and nickel are recovered and re-introduced into the battery production chain, is compared with a virgin production scenario. Based on detailed data acquisition from processes spread worldwide, a resource saving analysis is made. The savings are quantified in terms of exergy and cumulative exergy extracted from the natural environment. It turns out that the recycling scenario result in a 51.3% natural resource savings, not only because of decreased mineral ore dependency but also because of reduced fossil resource (45.3% reduction) and nuclear energy demand (57.2%).

Kim Denturck

Papers

Recycling rechargeable lithium ion batteries: Critical analysis of natural resource savings