Kai Huang

Environmental characteristics comparison of Li-ion batteries and Ni–MH batteries under the uncertainty of cycle performance

An environmental impact assessment model for secondary batteries under uncertainty is proposed, which is a combination of the life cycle assessment (LCA), Eco-indicator 99 system and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). The LCA can describe the environmental impact mechanism of secondary batteries, whereas the cycle performance was simulated through MCS. The composite LCA-MCS model was then carried out to estimate the environmental impact of two kinds of experimental batteries. Under this kind of standard assessment system, a comparison between different batteries could be accomplished. The following results were found: (1) among the two selected batteries, the environmental impact of the Li-ion battery is lower than the nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery, especially with regards to resource consumption and (2) the lithium ion (Li-ion) battery is less sensitive to cycle uncertainty, its environmental impact fluctuations are small when compared with the selected Ni-MH battery and it is more environmentally friendly. The assessment methodology and model proposed in this paper can also be used for any other secondary batteries and they can be helpful in the development of environmentally friendly secondary batteries.

Environmental Impact Assessment and End-of-Life Treatment Policy Analysis for Li-Ion Batteries and Ni-MH Batteries

Based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Eco-indicator 99 method, a LCA model was applied to conduct environmental impact and end-of-life treatment policy analysis for secondary batteries. This model evaluated the cycle, recycle and waste treatment stages of secondary batteries. Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) batteries and Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries were chosen as the typical secondary batteries in this study. Through this research, the following results were found: (1) A basic number of cycles should be defined. A minimum cycle number of 200 would result in an obvious decline of environmental loads for both battery types. Batteries with high energy density and long life expectancy have small environmental loads. Products and technology that help increase energy density and life expectancy should be encouraged. (2) Secondary batteries should be sorted out from municipal garbage. Meanwhile, different types of discarded batteries should be treated separately under policies and regulations. (3) The incineration rate has obvious impact on the Eco-indicator points of Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) batteries. The influence of recycle rate on Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries is more obvious. These findings indicate that recycling is the most promising direction for reducing secondary batteries’ environmental loads. The model proposed here can be used to evaluate environmental loads of other secondary batteries and it can be useful for proposing policies and countermeasures to reduce the environmental impact of secondary batteries.

Quantifying the environmental impact of a Li-rich high-capacity cathode material in electric vehicles via life cycle assessment

A promising Li-rich high-capacity cathode material (xLi2MnO3·(1-x)LiMn0.5Ni0.5O2) has received much attention with regard to improving the performance of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. This study presents an environmental impact evaluation of a lithium-ion battery with Li-rich materials used in an electric vehicle throughout the life cycle of the battery. A comparison between this cathode material and a Li-ion cathode material containing cobalt was compiled in this study. The battery use stage was found to play a large role in the total environmental impact and high greenhouse gas emissions. During battery production, cathode material manufacturing has the highest environmental impact due to its complex processing and variety of raw materials. Compared to the cathode with cobalt, the Li-rich material generates fewer impacts in terms of human health and ecosystem quality. Through the life cycle assessment (LCA) results and sensitivity analysis, we found that the electricity mix and energy efficiency significantly influence the environmental impacts of both battery production and battery use. This paper also provides a detailed life cycle inventory, including firsthand data on lithium-ion batteries with Li-rich cathode materials.

Rethinking environmental stress from the perspective of an integrated environmental footprint: Application in the Beijing industry sector

Individual footprint indicators are limited in that they usually only address one specific environmental aspect. For this reason, assessments involving multiple footprint indicators are preferred. However, the interpretation of a profile of footprint indicators can be difficult as the relative importance of the different footprint results is not readily discerned by decision-makers. In this study, a time series (1997-2012) of carbon, water and land footprints was calculated for industry sectors in the Beijing region using input-output analysis. An integrated environmental footprint (IEF) was subsequently developed using normalization and entropy weighting. The results show that steep increases in environmental footprint have accompanied Beijings rapid economic development. In 2012, the Primary Industry had the largest IEF (8.32); however, the Secondary Industry had the greatest increase over the study period, from 0.19 to 6.37. For the Primary Industry, the greatest contribution to the IEF came from the land footprint. For the Secondary and Tertiary Industries, the water footprint was most important. Using the IEF, industry sectors with low resource utilization efficiency and high greenhouse gas emissions intensity can be identified. As such, the IEF can help to inform about industry sectors which should be given priority for modernization as well as the particular footprints that require priority attention in each sector. The IEF can also be helpful in identifying industry sectors that could be encouraged to expand within the Beijing region as they are especially efficient in terms of value adding relative to IEF. Other industries, over time, may be better located in other regions that do not face the same environmental pressures as Beijing.

Does heavy metal hurt in the secondary battery production sites? The case study of occupational risk from Yangtze River Delta, China

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine the occupational health risk to employees of lithium-ion battery factories in Yangtze River Delta, China. Soil samples were collected from materials synthesis workshop and battery assembly line workshop, which are named site A, site N1, site N2, and site Z according to different battery products. We analyzed the heavy metals for Co, Cd, Mn, Cu, and Ni. The soil heavy metal exposure model and the health risk characterization model were built to assess occupational health risk. Besides, uncertainty analysis with the aid of Monte Carlo simulation was used to perform error propagation for model parameters. The health risk assessment with uncertainty results indicated that all the four sites have relative low risk of carcinogens for employees, and N1, A, and Z sites also have relative low risk of non-carcinogen for employees, but N2 site has value of 6.94, which is heavily higher than the threshold value (defined as 1.0). It means that the employees in N2 site are facing threat of the heavy metals. These results provide basic information of heavy metal pollution control and environment management in lithium-ion battery factory. It also answered the question of the occupational risk in the sites.

The Secondary Battery Product and Enterprise’s Carbon Footprint Under the Low Carbon Strategy

In recent years, more and more secondary battery are used in industry and daily life, nevertheless, extensive use of secondary battery will bring some impact to the environment such as greenhouse effects, soil pollution and water pollution. Only seeing the integral situation of secondary battery in China and implementing the low carbon strategy by the secondary battery enterprises as soon as possible, can we improve the secondary battery’s environmental impact and better realize the sustainable development. In this paper, we research the carbon footprint of lithium ion secondary battery based on PAS2050 ‘Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services’ and select a lithium ion battery project with the annual output of 30 million in company A, calculate carbon emissions of every phase, we conclude that main phase of carbon emissions is still production phase and the proportion is extremely large. In the same time, we also describe the production of the lithium ion battery of our country on a macro level and evaluate the enterprises carbon footprint to improve the environment effectively. In the end, the paper analyzes the existing low carbon policies in our country and put forward some relevant countermeasures for energy conservation and emissions reduction.

Optimization Strategies for Agricultural Non-Point Source Reduction

A methodological framework is brought forward, with the aim of reducing the agricultural non-point source (ANPS) pollution from the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides in rural area of the lake Dianchi watershed. In order to build a bridge connecting the public and the authority, a simplified decision support tool is conceived to realize the management target. Firstly, a rapid calculation method for the agricultural non-point source pollution is given called factor - coefficient method. Multiple kinds of agricultural non-point loads are calculated from both the pollution factors and the pollution coefficients. The sources include the farmland runoff, rural life, livestock and poultry, and so on. Then a checklist of engineering and management strategies to reduce ANPS are listed. Finally, according to the specific flowchart, the Best Management Practices (BMPs) to control the agricultural non-point source pollution of Lake Dianchi would be built, adapting with the real conditions of the watershed.

Watershed pollution control plans effect assessment: Countermeasure adjustment modeling and simulation

As the effect of watershed pollution control planning is hard to evaluated, this paper brought forward a kind of methodology to assess the countermeasures effects on the water body. A kind of Artificial Neural Net (ANN) work called Radial Basis Function (RBF) was used to simulate the uncover interrelationships among the measures and the water quality indicators. After building their internal net, some certain input parameters which represents the environmental protection investments or alike in the net, were adjusted mandatorily. The variations of the output water quality indicators showed the effect of these countermeasures. The simulation result showed that investment on environmental protection is a positive index for water quality improvement.