Life Cycle Assessment of First- and Second-Life Lithium-Ion Batteries:Implications from Existing Studies

Repurposing automotive lithium-ion batteries, which have reached their end of life, for stationary applications, allows for significant extension of their lifetime compared to recycling. Life cycle assessment has been broadly applied to analyse the environmental performance of energy storage systems in both mobile and stationary applications. The impact of battery degradation on the battery’s first life cycle was found to be significant. Furthermore, choices regarding the system boundaries, baseline scenario and the degradation ratio of the battery are found to have a pronounced contribution to the results. A fair comparison of the second-life batteries with the newly manufactured ones used for energy storage in stationary applications, such as residential households, requires allocation of the environmental burden associated with the batteries in their first life. The state of the degradation of a battery after its first life can serve as an allocation factor