Liu Wei, Tian Jin-Ping, Chen Lü-Jun
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Ji'nan 250100, China.
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Huan Jing Ke Xue. 2017 Aug 8;38(8):3544-3552. doi: 10.13227/j.hjkx.201612146.
This research undertook a life cycle assessment (LCA) for lead-acid batteries (LABs) used in electric bikes, the fastest growing LABs in China. A cradle-to-grave LCA model was established to identify the key materials or processes that contribute most to environmental impacts within the life cycle of LABs, including material production, battery manufacture, transportation, use, and end-of-life. A large amount of primary data obtained from enterprisers and a Chinese LCA database were used in this research to reflect the status of technology and environmental management for the related industries in China. The results indicate that material production and LAB use dominate in resource consumption and environmental impacts during the life cycle of LABs. Material production is the most important driver of such impacts as abiotic resources depletion (699%), eutrophication (89%), photochemical smog production (98%), ozone depletion (117%), total human toxicity (159%), and ecological toxicity (484%). Battery use is responsible for 83% of primary energy use and contributes the highest potentials to the impacts related to energy, including global warming potential (86%) and acidification potential (70%). Recovery of materials at the end-of-life stage will significantly mitigate the overall life cycle impacts by reducing virgin material consumption. Based on the findings, there are several substantial opportunities to reduce the overall environmental impacts of batteries, such as prolonging the lifetime of batteries, reducing the metal consumption in batteries, and improving the technology and management in recovery of end-of-life batteries.
本研究对电动自行车使用的铅酸电池（LABs）进行了生命周期评估（LCA），电动自行车是中国增长最快的铅酸电池应用领域。建立了一个从摇篮到坟墓的生命周期评估模型，以确定在铅酸电池生命周期内对环境影响最大的关键材料或过程，包括材料生产、电池制造、运输、使用和报废处理。本研究使用了从企业获取的大量原始数据以及一个中国生命周期评估数据库，以反映中国相关行业的技术和环境管理状况。结果表明，在铅酸电池的生命周期中，材料生产和铅酸电池的使用在资源消耗和环境影响方面占主导地位。材料生产是诸如非生物资源耗竭（699%）、富营养化（89%）、光化学烟雾产生（98%）、臭氧消耗（117%）、总人体毒性（159%）和生态毒性（484%）等影响的最重要驱动因素。电池使用占一次能源使用的83%，并且对与能源相关的影响具有最高的潜在贡献，包括全球变暖潜势（86%）和酸化潜势（70%）。在报废阶段回收材料将通过减少原生材料消耗显著减轻整个生命周期的影响。基于这些发现，有几个重大机会可以减少电池的整体环境影响，例如延长电池寿命、减少电池中的金属消耗以及改善报废电池回收的技术和管理。
