Prospective life cycle assessment of a flexible all-organic battery

Abstract

Strong interest from researchers and industry is accelerating development of flexible energy storage technologies for future flexible devices. It is critical to consider the environmental perspective in early development of new emerging technologies. In this study, cradle-to-factory gate prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed on production of an all-organic battery with conductive redox polymers as electrode material. To gain a better understanding of the environmental performance of the all-organic battery, a flexible lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery with lithium titanate oxide and lithium cobalt oxide as electrode active materials was modeled as reference. Main environmental impacts of the all-organic battery were attributable to anode and cathode production, with electrode backbones being the main contributors. Solvents, catalysts, waste treatment, energy, and bromine were key individual contributors. Comparison with the flexible Li-ion battery indicated inferior environmental performance of the all-organic battery due to its relatively low specific energy (Wh/kg) and large amount of materials needed for production of its electrode backbones. Sensitivity analysis showed that changing scaling-up parameters and the production route of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (a precursor of electrode backbones) strongly influenced the results. In order to lower the environmental impacts of the all-organic battery, future research should focus on designing a short production chain with lower material inputs of electrode backbones, increasing battery cycle life, and improving the specific energy of the battery. In addition, relevant recommendations were provided for prospective LCAs of upscaled systems.

Keywords

Prospective life cycle assessment; Emerging technologies; Polymer based battery; Flexible lithium ion battery; Flexible electronics

Published in

Journal of Cleaner Production
2022, volume: 373, article number: 133804

SLU Authors

• Zhang, Shan

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Ericsson, Niclas

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Karlsson Potter, Hanna

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hansson, Per-Anders

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Nordberg, Åke

  • Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Global goals (SDG)

SDG7 Affordable and clean energy
SDG9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure

UKÄ Subject classification

Other Environmental Engineering
Energy Systems

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133804

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/119091