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Towards more flexibility and transparency in life cycle inventories for Lithium-ion batteries
Open accessAbstract
Electric vehicles are gaining increasing room in the global market, since they are seen amongst the most promising solutions to cope with the growing concerns related to climate change and environmental pollution. The successful evolution of the transportation sector towards electro-mobility depends on the battery chemistry and technology, and its environmental impacts. However, the poor availability of data at the commercial production scale and the diversity in modelling choices make evaluating the environmental impacts of Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) difficult and uncertain. We aim at contributing to the creation of flexible and transparent life cycle inventories (LCI) of LIB for background databases by means of a consequently modular approach that will be applicable in the future as common framework to model new generations of LIB. In the present paper, we focus on (i) compiling modular LCI datasets of current and near-future market LIB chemistries, namely NMC111, NMC811 and NCA, by using the most recent data from existing sources, and (ii) exemplarily assessing the environmental impacts of the three modelled chemistries. This assessment takes into consideration a wide range of impact categories, with a focus on climate change and the comparison with the available literature in the sector. The whole is complemented with several sensitivity analyses, which show the relevance of transparency when making choices in compiling the LCI.
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In the citing paper
“The raw material sector is one of the most significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions of LIB cell production.95,96”
From Current and Future Impacts of Lithium Carbonate from Brines: A Global Regionalized Life Cycle Assessment Model (2025) · cites this paper as [96]
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In the citing paper
“Multiple studies emphasize the range of reported or modeled GHG emissions related to Li-ion battery production (e.g., Raugei and Winfield 2019; Crenna et al. 2021).”
From Regionalized life cycle assessment of present and future lithium production for Li-ion batteries (2022) · cites this paper as Crenna et al. 2021
In the citing paper
“the production of 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) LIB cells, which is equivalent to 5.1 and 4.8 kg NMC111 and NMC811 cells, respectively (Crenna et al., 2021).”
From Global warming potential of lithium-ion battery cell production: Determining influential primary and secondary raw material supply routes (2023) · cites this paper as Crenna et al., 2021
In the citing paper
“but they are known to be sensitive to modelling assumptions and system boundary choices19,22,23.”
From Carbon footprint distributions of lithium-ion batteries and their materials (2024) · cites this paper as [22]
In the citing paper
“Additionally, data availability and access continue to pose critical challenges22,23,54.”
From Carbon footprint distributions of lithium-ion batteries and their materials (2024) · cites this paper as [22]
In the citing paper
“The energy densities for conversion are taken as scalars from recent work35 and are in line with the original work22 from 2021 that, in turn, builds the basis for the current Ecoinvent inventory (NMC: 0.25 kWh kg−1 and LFP: 0.16 kWh kg−1).”
From Carbon footprint distributions of lithium-ion batteries and their materials (2024) · cites this paper as [22]
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Citations
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Rajaeifar, M. A., Ghadimi, P., Raugei, M., Wu, Y., & Heidrich, O. (2022) · Resources Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106144 · Cited by 376
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Life cycle comparison of industrial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling and mining supply chains
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Metadata
- Authors
- Crenna, E., Gauch, M., Widmer, R., Wäger, P., & Hischier, R.
- Affiliations
- Empa (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Crenna, Eleonora
- Venue
- Resources, Conservation and Recycling
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-07
- Volume
- 170
- Pages
- 105619
- ISSN
- 0921-3449 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3160822404
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 23 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 6
- FWCI
- 5.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Resources Conservation and Recycling (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DORA Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- BOA (University of Milano-Bicocca) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Horizon 2020 (814464)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Metals and Alloys › Extraction and Separation Processes
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure
- Keywords
- lithium-ion batteries, life cycle inventory, LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2, NMC811, NCA cathode, battery chemistry, electric vehicles, environmental impact, climate change impacts, data availability, sensitivity analysis
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