The Cobalt Supply Chain and Environmental Life Cycle Impacts of Lithium-Ion Battery Energy Storage Systems

Jani Das, Andrew Kleiman, Atta Ur Rehman, Rahul Verma and Michael H. Young ()
Additional contact information
Jani Das: Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
Andrew Kleiman: Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
Atta Ur Rehman: Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
Rahul Verma: Fractal Business Analytics LLC, Austin, TX 78735, USA
Michael H. Young: Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-28

Abstract: Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) deployed in battery energy storage systems (BESS) can reduce the carbon intensity of the electricity-generating sector and improve environmental sustainability. The aim of this study is to use life cycle assessment (LCA) modeling, using data from peer-reviewed literature and public and private sources, to quantify environmental impacts along the supply chain for cobalt, a crucial component in many types of LIBs. The study seeks to understand where in the life cycle stage the environmental impacts are highest, thus highlighting actions that can be taken to improve sustainability of the LIB supply chain. The system boundary for this LCA is cradle-to-gate. Impact assessment follows ReCiPe Midpoint (H) 2016. We assume a 30-year modeling period, with augmentation occurring at the end of the 3rd, 7th, and 14th years of operations, before a complete replacement in the 21st year. Three refinery locations (China, Canada, and Finland), a range of ore grades, and five battery chemistries (NMC111, NMC532, NMC622, NMC811, and NCA) are used in scenarios to better estimate their effect on the life cycle impacts. Insights from the study are that impacts along nearly all pathways increase according to an inverse power-law relationship with ore grade; refining outside of China can reduce global warming potential (GWP) by over 12%; and GWP impacts for cobalt used in NCA and other NMC battery chemistries are 63% and 45–74% lower than in NMC111, respectively. When analyzed on a single-score basis, marine and freshwater ecotoxicity are prominent. For an ore grade of 0.3%, the GWP values for the Canada route decrease at a rate of 58% to 65%, and those for Finland route decrease by 71% to 76% from the base case. Statistical analysis shows that cobalt content in the battery is the highest predictor (R 2 = 0.988), followed by the ore grade (R 2 = 0.966) and refining location (R 2 = 0.766), when assessed for correlation individually. The results presented here point to areas where environmental burdens of LIBs can be reduced, and thus they are helpful to policy and investment decision makers.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; cobalt; supply chain; lithium-ion batteries; environmental sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/5/1910/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/5/1910/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:5:p:1910-:d:1346162

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().