Life Cycle Assessment of repurposed electric vehicle batteries: an adapted method based on modelling energy flows
Silvia Bobba,Fabrice Mathieux,Fulvio Ardente,Gian Andrea Blengini,Maria Anna Cusenza,Andreas Podias,Andreas Pfrang +6 more
TLDR
An adapted LCA is proposed based on the comparison of different scenarios from a life-cycle perspective and confirmed that the environmental benefits of adopting repurposed batteries to increase PV self-consumption in a house occur under specific conditions and that the benefits are more or less considerable depending on the impact category assessed.Abstract:
After their first use in electric vehicles (EVs), the residual capacity of traction batteries can make them valuable in other applications. Although reusing EV batteries remains an undeveloped market, second-use applications of EV batteries are in line with circular economy principles and the waste management hierarchy. Although substantial environmental benefits are expected from reusing traction batteries, further efforts are needed in data collection, modelling the life-cycle stages and calculating impact indicators to propose a harmonized and adapted life-cycle assessment (LCA) method. To properly assess the environmental benefits and drawbacks of using repurposed EV batteries in second-use applications, in this article an adapted LCA is proposed based on the comparison of different scenarios from a life-cycle perspective. The key issues for the selected life-cycle stages and the aspects and parameters to be assessed in the analysis are identified and discussed for each stage, including manufacturing, repurposing, reusing and recycling. The proposed method is applied to a specific case study concerning the use of repurposed batteries to increase photovoltaic (PV) self-consumption in a given dwelling. Primary data on the dwelling’s energy requirements and PV production were used to properly assess the energy flows in this specific repurposed scenario: both the literature search performed and the results obtained highlighted the relevance of modelling the system energy using real data, combining the characteristics of both the battery and its application. The LCA results confirmed that the environmental benefits of adopting repurposed batteries to increase PV self-consumption in a house occur under specific conditions and that the benefits are more or less considerable depending on the impact category assessed. Higher environmental benefits refer to impact categories dominated by the manufacturing and repurposing stages. Some of the most relevant parameters (e.g. residual capacity and allocation factor) were tested in a sensitivity analysis. The method can be used in other repurposing application cases if parameters for these cases can be determined by experimental tests, modelling or extracting data from the literature.read more
Citations
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Circular economy indicators: What do they measure?
Gustavo Longaray Moraga,Sophie Huysveld,Fabrice Mathieux,Gian Andrea Blengini,Luc Alaerts,Karel Van Acker,Steven De Meester,Jo Dewulf +7 more
TL;DR: A classification framework to understand what indicators measure is proposed and none of the analysed indicators focuses on the preservation of functions.
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On the sustainability of lithium ion battery industry – A review and perspective
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined technologies and research efforts in battery recycling from the perspective of economic viability and life cycle inventory, and comments on the challenges facing battery recycling, and the role of battery design and circular economy in the sustainable development of battery industry where governments, manufacturers and consumers all play a part.
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Toward Green Battery Cells: Perspective on Materials and Technologies
Simon Dühnen,Johannes Betz,Martin Kolek,Richard Schmuch,Martin Winter,Martin Winter,Tobias Placke +6 more
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Energy and environmental assessment of a traction lithium-ion battery pack for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
TL;DR: The results of the analysis show that the manufacturing phase is relevant to all assessed impact categories (contribution higher than 60%) and the contribution to the use phase impact of battery efficiency is larger than that of battery transport.
Journal ArticleDOI
Reuse of electric vehicle batteries in buildings: An integrated load match analysis and life cycle assessment approach
TL;DR: The goal is to identify the optimal BESS size, expressed as energy capacity, for load match optimization and environmental impacts in a life cycle perspective, and highlights the potential synergy inspired to the principles of the circular economy and of the industrial symbiosis, between the building and the automotive sector.
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