(124b) Life Cycle Comparison of Lithium Ion Battery Manufacturing Methods

Abstract

Although lithium ion batteries
(LIB) are considered to be a promising power storage option for battery
electric vehicles (BEVs), little work has been done to improve and optimize the
manufacturing of LIBs from a life-cycle perspective. In this study, the
environmental impacts of five commercially available LIBs based on different
cathode chemistries, including LiCoO₂, LiMn₂O₄,
LiCoMnO₄, LiNiMnO₄ and LiFePO₄, are examined to
address the differences in material flows in the production phase of LIBs.  In addition, solid state and sol-gel
synthesis pathways are investigated for each cathode materials to account for
the differences between wet chemistry and dry chemistry, with a particular
interest in process heat input and organic solvent use. The results indicate
that using solid state pathway, LiMn₂O₄
appears to be the most environment-benign cathode material, followed by LiFePO₄.
For all of the cathode materials, the environmental burdens of sol-gel pathway
outweigh that of the solid state synthesis method,
with organic solvent as the largest contributor. In both cases, starting
materials containing nickel and cobalt are responsible for a considerable share
of the environmental impacts pertinent to the manufacturing of LIBs. A
comparison of the environmental impacts of anode active materials and the
operational phase impacts of BEVs relative to internal combustion engine
vehicles will also be presented in this talk.