The electrification of the transport sector is a critical part of the net-zero transition. The mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) powered by lithium-ion batteries in the coming decade will inevitably lead to a large amount of battery waste, which needs handling in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. Battery recycling is a sustainable treatment option at the battery end-of-life that supports a circular economy. However, heterogeneity in pack designs across battery manufacturers are hampering the establishment of an efficient disassembly process, hence making recycling less viable. A comprehensive techno-economic assessment of the disassembly process was conducted, which identified cost hotspots in battery pack designs and to guide design optimisation strategies that help save time and cost for end-of-life treatment. The analyses include six commercially available EV battery packs: Renault Zoe, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model 3, Peugeot 208, BAIC and BYD Han. The BAIC and BYD battery packs exhibit lower disassembly costs (US$50.45 and US$47.41 per pack, respectively), compared to the Peugeot 208 and Nissan Leaf (US$186.35 and US$194.11 per pack, respectively). This variation in disassembly cost is due mostly to the substantial differences in number of modules and fasteners. The economic assessment suggests that full automation is required to make disassembly viable by 2040, as it could boost disassembly capacity by up to 600 %, while substantially achieving cost savings of up to US$190 M per year.
First-generation cathodes for commercial lithium-ion batteries are based on layered transition-metal oxides. Research on ternary compounds, such as LiCoO2, evolved into mixed-metal systems, notably Li(Ni,Mn,Co)O2 (NMCs), which allows significant tuning of the physical properties. Despite their widespread application in commercial devices, the fundamental understanding of NMCs is incomplete. Here, we review the latest insights from multiscale modeling, bridging between the redox phenomena that occur at an atomistic level to the transport of ions and electrons across an operating device. We discuss changes in the electronic and vibrational structures through the NMC compositional space and how these link to continuum models of electrochemical charge–discharge cycling. Finally, we outline the remaining challenges for predictive models of high-performance batteries, including capturing the relevant device bottlenecks and chemical degradation processes, such as oxygen evolution.
The pursuit of low-carbon transport has significantly increased demand for lithium-ion batteries. However, the rapid increase in battery manufacturing, without adequate consideration of the carbon emissions associated with their production and material demands, poses the threat of shifting the bulk of emissions upstream. In this article, a life cycle assessment (LCA) model is developed to account for the cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of lithium-ion batteries across 26 Chinese provinces, 20 North American locations and 19 countries in Europe and Asia. Analysis of published LCA data reveals significant uncertainty associated with the carbon emissions of key battery materials; their overall contribution to the carbon footprint of a LIB varies by a factor of ca. 4 depending on production route and source. The links between production location and the gate-to-gate carbon footprint of battery manufacturing are explored, with predicted median values ranging between 0.1 and 69.5 kg CO2-eq kWh−1. Leading western-world battery manufacturing locations in the US and Europe, such as Kentucky and Poland are found to have comparable carbon emissions to Chinese rivals, even exceeding the carbon emissions of battery manufacturing in several Chinese provinces. Such resolution on material and energy contributions to the carbon footprint of LIBs is essential to inform policy- and decision-making to minimise the carbon emissions of the battery value chain. Given the current status quo, the global carbon footprint of the lithium-ion battery industry is projected to reach up to 1.0 Gt CO2-eq per year within the next decade. With material supply chain decarbonisation and energy savings in battery manufacturing, a lower estimate of 0.5 Gt CO2-eq per year is possible.
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