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recycling and increase yields and materials optimization to support cost-e ective battery recycling processes.

Alternatively, if economic recovery of key materials is not possible, battery recycling e orts should focus on minimizing the environmental impacts of battery disposal at end-of-life. That could require using di erent materials capture technologies and being supported with di erent battery designs. One study has found that recycling SIBs such as NaMMO and NaPBA or the LIB LiFP with low material values may result in only limited environmental benefit. Of course, it’s not that simple, and the same study observed that with similar recycling rates, the toxic impact and resource depletion resulting from NaMMO, NaPBA, and NaNMMT SIBs use could be lower than most LIBs. Economics also matter. For example, today, the cost to capture lithium and cobalt from recycling LIBs is significantly higher than the costs of the mined raw materials.

Social sustainability

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While di cult to quantify or place an economic value on, social sustainability can be an important consideration in the overall sustainability of products such as rechargeable batteries. According to the United Nations Global Compact, “social sustainability is about identifying and managing positive and negative business impacts on people. The quality of a company’s relationships and engagement with its stakeholders is critical. Directly or indirectly, companies a ect what happens to employees, workers in the value chain, customers, and local communities, and it is important to manage impacts proactively.”

For example, the high level of PbA recycling came about partly due to the realization of the harm that lead causes to society if it gets into the environment, especially into the water supply. In the case of LIBs versus SIBs, SIBs currently appear to o er better social sustainability. Compared with obtaining sodium and the other elements for SIBs, mining lithium and cobalt for LIBs is fraught with negative environmental impacts and has been linked to alleged human rights abuses.

Design for sustainability

Designing for sustainability is the ultimate goal, but it can be challenging since the total environmental cost of producing and using rechargeable batteries is not assigned just to the design and manufacturing processes. There are multiple direct and indirect environmental impacts from rechargeable battery production, including high energy needed to produce the cells that result in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, resource depletion, and environmental impacts of mining the various materials and acidification of the local environment if the production process is not properly managed.

A life cycle assessment (LCA) can provide a starting point for systematically analyzing the impacts of rechargeable batteries throughout their entire life cycle. For example, an LCA for EV batteries includes the entire battery production process, how the batteries fit into the EV production process, environmental impacts from recharging the batteries over their useful lives, and the factors related to repurposing or recycling spent EV batteries. It’s a complex process. For example, lighter weight batteries need less energy to be carried as part of an EV, batteries with longer cycle lives can reduce the impact of repurposing or recycling the cells, batteries with higher charge cycle e ciencies can reduce the production of GHGs from recharging, and so on.

The bottom line

So, are LIBs or SIBs more sustainable? The answer is still unfolding and will be impacted by numerous factors, including the changing costs of the materials used in both types of batteries, how cost-e ectively the batteries can be repurposed or recycled, the social sustainability of each technology, and the total life cycle environmental impacts of LIBs versus SIBs. In any case, rechargeable batteries, especially post-lithium rechargeables, are expected to be major contributors to a more sustainable society. DW

References

Environmental Aspects of Grid-Scale Battery Deployment, Electric Power Research Institute

How do lithium-ion batteries contribute to the realization of a sustainable society?, Murata

Longer Lasting Sodium-Ion Batteries on the Horizon, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

On the environmental competitiveness of sodium-ion batteries under a full life cycle perspective – a cell-chemistry specific modeling approach, Royal Society of Chemistry

Recycling of Lithium-ion Batteries: The Way for a Sustainable Energy Transition, CIC energiGUNE

Social Sustainability, United Nations Global Compact Sustainable Electric Vehicle Batteries for a Sustainable World, Advanced Energy Materials

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