Analysis of the Ecological Footprint from the Extraction and Processing of Materials in the LCA Phase of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Dominika Siwiec (), Wiesław Frącz, Andrzej Pacana, Grzegorz Janowski and Łukasz Bąk
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Dominika Siwiec: Department of Manufacturing Processes and Production Engineering, Rzeszow University of Technology, Powstancow Warszawy 8, 35-959 Rzeszow, Poland
Wiesław Frącz: Department of Materials Forming and Processing, Rzeszow University of Technology, Powstancow Warszawy 8, 35-959 Rzeszow, Poland
Andrzej Pacana: Department of Manufacturing Processes and Production Engineering, Rzeszow University of Technology, Powstancow Warszawy 8, 35-959 Rzeszow, Poland
Grzegorz Janowski: Department of Materials Forming and Processing, Rzeszow University of Technology, Powstancow Warszawy 8, 35-959 Rzeszow, Poland
Łukasz Bąk: Department of Materials Forming and Processing, Rzeszow University of Technology, Powstancow Warszawy 8, 35-959 Rzeszow, Poland

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: The development of batteries used in electric vehicles towards sustainable development poses challenges to designers and manufacturers. Although there has been research on the analysis of the environmental impact of batteries during their life cycle (LCA), there is still a lack of comparative analyses focusing on the first phase, i.e., the extraction and processing of materials. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to perform a detailed comparative analysis of popular electric vehicle batteries. The research method was based on the analysis of environmental burdens regarding the ecological footprint of the extraction and processing of materials in the life cycle of batteries for electric vehicles. Popular batteries were analyzed: lithium-ion (Li-Ion), lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO 4 ), and three-component lithium nickel cobalt manganese (NCM). The ecological footprint criteria were carbon dioxide emissions, land use (including modernization and land development) and nuclear energy emissions. This research was based on data from the GREET model and data from the Ecoinvent database in the OpenLCA programme. The results of the analysis showed that considering the environmental loads for the ecological footprint, the most advantageous from the environmental point of view in the extraction and processing of materials turned out to be a lithium iron phosphate battery. At the same time, key environmental loads occurring in the first phase of the LCA of these batteries were identified, e.g., the production of electricity using hard coal, the production of quicklime, the enrichment of phosphate rocks (wet), the production of phosphoric acid, and the uranium mine operation process. To reduce these environmental burdens, improvement actions are proposed, resulting from a synthesized review of the literature. The results of the analysis may be useful in the design stages of new batteries for electric vehicles and may constitute the basis for undertaking pro-environmental improvement actions toward the sustainable development of batteries already present on the market.

Keywords: battery; lithium-ion; ecological footprint; LCA; sustainability; mechanical engineering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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