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Lithium Ion LCA

Material Flow(Inputs and Outputs)

References

Lithium-Ion Batteries: Solid-Electrolyte Interphase
>Perla B Balbuena, Yixuan Wang; Imperial College Press
Environmental Burdens of Large Lithium-Ion Batteries Developed in a Japanese National Project
>Kaoru ISHIHARA, Nobuo KIHIRA, Nobuyuki TERADA and Toru IWAHORI
Life Cycle Assessment LCA of Li-Ion batteries for electric vehicles
>M. Gauch, R. Widmer, D. Notter, A. Stamp, H.J. Althaus, P. Wäger
Li-ion and NiMH battery recycling at Umicore
>Jan Tytgat
Tesla Motors Engineering Blog
Dan Steingart, PhD
>Assistant Professor – Dept of Chemical Engineering (City College of NY)
Building better batteries
>M. Armand and J.-M. Tarascon
Issues and challenges facing rechargeable lithium batteries
>J.-M. Tarascon & M. Armand

Final Presentation on Lithium Ion Battery Cells

Lithium Car Batteries Intro

In my reconcepualization of the EV car battery cell, it was nessiary to concider improvements to multiple stages of the cell lifecycle. The most efficient chemistries are already being considered for use in these batteries. The biggest question I had become a matter if improvements in efficiency outweighed the environmental impact compared to past battery chemistries.

Where to Intervene

From a consumer standpoint, batteries are typically examined in terms of efficiency and safety, therefore these are the factors that drive the market and innovation. I did not consider chemistry because these factors are driven by efficiency of the battery. Also, all current raw materials used in secondary cells have similar environmental effect as seen in the previous chart.

Materials Production

The production certain raw materials in Lithium-Ion and other secondary cells causes environmental issues including greenhouse gases and high levels of acidification. There is considerable amount of Sulfur Dioxide released into the atmosphere from the mining of materials such as nickel. Technology is now being developed that can be used to retrofit existing factories with hardware that would allow the breakdown of sulfur dioxide that is being released in production process.

Sustainable energy use for both materials production and transportation is also another way to reduce environmental impact. This would significantly reduce C02 emissions, which currently have the largest environmental effect in the manufacturing of NiMH and Lithium-Ion batteries in comparison with lead-acid batteries used in combustion engine vehicles.

Transportation

Transportation is a major factor in CO2 emissions and energy consumption. Again, a switch to the use of sustainable energy can dramatically improve environmental effects. Both Toyota and Sanyo have recently constructed cargo ships that run partially on solar and wind energy. Another way transportation affects can be altered would be through the reconcideration of where materials or sourced and the location of fabrication. It would be an intelegent investment opportunity to setup a battery manufacturing in a strategic location that has locally available resources.

Use

It is important to educate the consumer on best use practices that would prolong the life of the battery. It would also be more sustainable limit the power draw of the vehicles that use the batteries. This would mean they wouldn’t necessarily be optimal in sports cars.

Recycling

Most materials in Lithium Ion batteries are recyclable. Right now the Tesla battery recycles 60% of battery and reuses 10%. Additional recycablity can be achieved with greater market volume. Recycling batteries can reduce CO2 emissions by 70% according to Umicore. Battery mineral resources are limited and create a reliance on certain markets, so recycling relieves this need to rely on outside sources. Finally, it is necessary to create some sort of government regulation like WEEE in the EU that demands by law the proper recycling of these batteries.

Networked Chessboard

photo by Tom Igoe

Michael Lewis proposed an idea for creating a physical chess board that can be linked to the online world. I had bounced a similar idea a while back when working on the augmented reality table for Hackday NYC. I imagined using fiduciary markers as modular playing pieces with a screen based system. This would allow an unlimited number of games you could play. For this project though we decided to take a more conservative approach that upheld the aesthetics and materiality of the timeless game of chess.

One of the exciting advents for the game of chess is that it’s expanded to an online environment where players from different countries and across many miles can now meet on the Web and play in tournaments or with family and friends. However one of the difficulties with online chess is that players still lose certain qualities that you get with the physical board. Our game brings these two worlds together by allowing players to see on a physical chess board what moves their online opponent player is making. In our discussions with chess venues near NYU players mentioned that this could have great value for teachers as well as be an innovative development for the game. Something that is unique about our board is that it doesn’t require expensive technology such as projection and tracking as do other augment reality chess boards.

Lithium Ion Batteries Overview

Lithium Ion rechargeable batteries has completely transformed the battery industry in terms of quality, ecological effects, and safety. Not until 1996 had the technology developed to a point where these type of batteries could start to be considered for use in electric automobiles due to discoveries that increased safety, stability, performance and decreased cost of the batteries. Since that time, this technology continues to be leveraged as being far superior to its lead acid and NiMH counterparts. Advantages of lithium include lighter weight, longer lifespan, and higher efficiency. The materials used in lithium batteries are highly recyclable as well.

Interest

Electric cars are becoming an increasingly viable alternative form of transportation. There has been a resurgence in the interest for electric cars since the “death of the electric car” (See film “Who Killed the Electric Car”. The key component to performance of EVs is their battery. The efficiency and performance of the ESS(Energy Stroage System) determines cost of the vehicle and therefore has a large impact on the market.

Innovation

Lithium batteries are currently a very popular field of innovation since this type of research is beneficial to many intrustries including laptop and other mobile device production. Most experimentation takes places through testing the use of different types of elements for the anodes and cathodes of these batteries. Other innovations occur through using different form factors and configurations of these cells. It was recently discovered that the best performance comes through configuring a large number of small cells connected in series and parallel as opposed to using a fewer number of larger cells.

Regulatory

In the US

Safety is regulated by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and Regulations run by the Department of Transportation. These regulations determine the standards for safety testing, that including thermal and impact testing of the battery. These standards only address driver and passenger safety and do not environmental concerns

International Standards

These standards were created by the EU do not apply to batteries produced in the US.

Safety

Altitude simulation: simulating air transport.
Thermal cycling: assessing cell and battery seal integrity.
Vibration: simulating vibration during transport.
Shock: simulating possible impacts during transport.
External short circuit: simulating an external short circuit.
Overcharge: evaluating ability of a rechargeable battery to withstand overcharging.

RoHS – batteries that meet this standard do not include

Lead
Mercury
Cadmium
Hexavalent chromium (chromium xxx or Cr6+)
Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)

WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) sates that, from 13 August 2005 onwards, manufacturers are required to finance the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of all WEEE sold under their brand.

Activists/NGOs

The first time electric car advocacy hit the mainstream was with the release of “Who Killed the Electric Car” in 2006. They supported other organizations such as Plug in America who advocates for zero-emission vehicles. There are also federal bills such as E-Drive which funds the development of EV (Electric Vehicles) for use in organizations including the USPS. Call2Recycle is the largest rechargeable battery recycling organization and is funded by product manufactures around the world. They provide services for recycling batteries, advocate environmental protection, and respond to government regulations.

Consumer Motivation

The major drivers for consumer in electric vehicles is reducing fuel costs and emissions. Through buying an electric car, fuel cost decrease significantly and even become zero when using a sustainable energy source. Consumers are also given a tax break by the government on energy efficient vehicles. Consumers still often don’t have the foresight to weigh long term benefits of products against the higher cost of electric and hybrid vehicles in relation to their gas fueled counterparts. This cost factor is tied to the battery technology, meaning with the development of cheaper more efficient batteries, the cost of electric vehicles will decrease. Consumers are also becoming more conscious about reducing emissions and therefore have incentive to buy electric vehicles in order to offset their carbon footprint.

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