Electrical car trade is at present present process exceptional growth, with a progress charge in China surpassing 30% by 2022 (Iturrondobeitia et al., 2022). Regardless of the emergence of lithium-oxygen batteries, sodium-ion batteries, Zn-ion batteries, and different revolutionary battery applied sciences, lithium-ion batteries stay the popular choice for electrical car power storage owing to their superior power density and long-lasting cycle life (Wang et al., 2024; Zhou et al., 2024; ZilinHu et al., 2023). Nonetheless, the common lifespan of lithium-ion batteries ranges from 5 to eight years resulting from points together with diminished battery capability and effectivity. It leads to a major rise within the amount of discarded lithium batteries.
In response to statistics, the quantity of retired energy batteries in China is projected to achieve 530,000 t in 2022. It’s anticipated to surpass 2.6 million t/a by 2028 (Desk S1) (Adhikari et al., 2023). Whereas being generally referred to as “inexperienced batteries,” lithium-ion batteries nonetheless include poisonous electrolytes, natural compounds, and polymers, that poses security and environmental dangers (He et al., 2024; Xu et al., 2024). Furthermore, the cathode of discarded lithium batteries incorporates valuable metals equivalent to lithium, nickel, and cobalt (Solar et al., 2020). It’s going to result in the waste of invaluable sources if not recycled appropriately (Yu et al., 2024). Subsequently, environment friendly recycling of lithium-ion batteries is crucial for the sustainable improvement of the lithium-ion battery trade from each environmental and financial views.
A number of life cycle assessments (LCA) research have been carried out to investigate the recycling strategy of lithium-ion batteries of electrical autos (Li et al., 2024; Yang et al., 2020; Zheng et al., 2020). LCA is a crucial environmental administration device to judge the environmental impression of a product or course of (Wu et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2019). It identifies and quantifies the environmental results of the whole life cycle of energy batteries (Ding et al., 2024, Sankar, 2024, Zhou et al., 2024, Meshram, 2020). Certainly, the recycling of energy batteries performs a considerable function within the environmental footprint of the life cycle. LCA outcomes from Yoo et al. confirmed that the lifecycle GHG emissions of NCM811 produced from recycled supplies had been 40–48% decrease than these produced from uncooked cathode energetic supplies. It additionally considerably reduces related air pollutant emissions and water consumption (Yoo et al., 2023). Moreover, Liu et al. evaluated the environmental and power effectivity of cascade utilization for retired LFP batteries. Vital environmental advantages had been famous, together with 76% discount in mineral useful resource depletion, 83% discount in fossil power depletion, and a noteworthy discount in several environmental impression parameters. (Liu et al., 2023).
Nonetheless, the present analysis on the life cycle evaluation (LCA) of energy batteries is insufficiently complete, missing comparative analyses of varied lithium-ion batteries and numerous recycling strategies (Blömeke et al., 2022; Li et al., 2024). For example, the research carried out by Mohr and Kallitsis completely evaluated probably the most superior pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical restoration processes, neglecting the extra prevalent pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical applied sciences, which hampers an intensive analysis of the environmental impacts related to completely different restoration applied sciences (Kallitsis et al., 2022; Mohr et al., 2020). A number of research have additionally carried out qualitative analyses evaluating varied recycling processes for lithium-ion batteries, however missing quantitative evaluation (Li et al., 2020; Yang et al., 2015). Moreover, the vast majority of research predominantly focus on the environmental implications of the ability battery manufacturing course of or the whole life cycle, with minimal or no distinct consideration of the recycling course of (Latini et al., 2022; Solar et al., 2020).
Our examine supplies a complete evaluation of the predominant energy battery recycling applied sciences, encompassing cascade utilization, pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, pyro-hydro mixed utilization, and “bodily utilization”. It makes it doable for deciding which course of appears extra appropriate for large-scale purposes and analyzing the hotspot supplies and recycled merchandise which have an incredible unfavourable and optimistic impression on the setting impacts throughout recycling course of. Furthermore, taking ternary lithium battery (NCM) and lithium iron phosphate battery (LFP) as analysis objects, the environmental impression of the recycling processes was evaluated to supply a comparative evaluation of the 2 predominant batteries within the present market.
Primarily based on the above evaluation, the first analysis targets are to: (1) Examine the environmental impression of varied recycling applied sciences within the recycling strategy of two energy batteries. (2) Analyze the hotspot supplies and recycled merchandise which have an incredible unfavourable and optimistic impression on the setting impacts. (3) Present ideas for lowering environmental impacts of the recycling course of.
