Prospective LCA of the production and EoL recycling of a novel type of Li-ion battery for electric vehicles

The transport sector as a whole – and within it passenger cars in particular – is currently responsible for a large share of the total greenhouse gas emissions of many developed and developing countries, and a transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is often seen as a key stepping stone towards the de-carbonization of personal mobility. Research is on-going in the continuous development and improvement of lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries, which may use a range of several different metals in conjunction with lithium itself, such as: lithium manganese oxide (LMO), lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM), and lithium nickel-cobalt-aluminium oxide (NCA). Within the MARS-EV research project, a new cell chemistry has been developed and tested, using a lithium cobalt phosphate (LCP) formulation. This work presents the first life cycle assessment (LCA) for such LCP batteries, including a newly-developed hydrometallurgical battery recycling process which enables the end-of-life recovery of not only the valuable metals, but also of the graphite component, thereby avoiding the associated CO2 emissions