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Autor/a
Ayllón García, Miquel
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Abstract
Battery electric vehicles are on their way to replace conventional internal combustion engine vehicles amid concerns of climate change and other related environmental impacts. However, the fast growth of this technology comes at the expense of growing concerns regarding the environmental burdens associated with the life cycle stages of the batteries that could make fossil fuel obsolete. In light of the above, this study focuses on the environmental impacts incurred to produce, use and dispose of batteries tailored for electric vehicles.
The standardised life cycle assessment methodology (LCA) is implemented using the Open LCA software. Additionally, the CML-baseline is used as the life cycle interpretation assessment methodology. The study aims at covering the life cycle from three different perspectives.
The cradle-to-grave results show that over 90% of the environmental burdens are attributed to raw material extraction and materials production phase while the burdens on impact categories which involve toxicity are largely driven by the disposal of the battery.
The Cell manufacturing and positive electrode paste are key contributors to the cradle-to-gate results. The electricity used in cell manufacturing accounts for 64% of the contributions to global warming potential and ozone layer depletion. As for the positive electrode paste, it contributes to abiotic depletion, human toxicity, and photochemical oxidation by 86%, 61%, and 84% respectively.
Furthermore, it is estimated that implementing the direct recycling methodology can result in a 21% decrease in GHG emissions and 44% in human toxicity while reducing the total energy consumption from 92 MJ·Km-1 to 88 MJ·Km-1 can be achieved.
Finally, the sensitivity analysis reveals that decreasing the use of the positive active material by 10% causes an 8% reduction in photochemical oxidation, 9% in acidification and 6% in human toxicity.
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