Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), Karlstrasse 11 , 76133 Karlsruhe , Germany.
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe , Germany.
Environ Sci Technol. 2018 Sep 18;52(18):10864-10873. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.8b02073. Epub 2018 Aug 30.
Batteries are one of the key technologies for flexible energy systems in the future. In particular, vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) are well suited to provide modular and scalable energy storage due to favorable characteristics such as long cycle life, easy scale-up, and good recyclability. However, there is a lack of detailed original studies on the potential environmental impacts of their production and operation. The present study fills this gap by providing a comprehensive life cycle assessment of a representative VRFB. Transparent and comprehensive inventory data are disclosed as a basis for further environmental studies. VRFBs are found to be promising regarding the assessed impact categories, especially at high energy-to-power (E/P) ratios. On the other hand, significant impacts are associated with the vanadium pentoxide production, which is why the origin and processing of the vanadium bearing ores are a key for further reducing the environmental impacts associated with the VRFB manufacturing. While the lower efficiency of the VRFB is a disadvantage in comparison to e.g. lithium-ion batteries (LIB), its recyclability is significantly higher. In this sense, the importance of taking a cradle-to-cradle life cycle perspective when comparing very different battery systems can be highlighted for further research on this topic.
电池是未来灵活能源系统的关键技术之一。特别是，由于其具有长循环寿命、易于扩展和良好的可回收性等优点，钒氧化还原液流电池（VRFB）非常适合提供模块化和可扩展的储能。然而，对于其生产和运行的潜在环境影响，缺乏详细的原始研究。本研究通过对代表性 VRFB 进行全面的生命周期评估来填补这一空白。透明和全面的清单数据被披露出来，作为进一步环境研究的基础。就评估的影响类别而言，VRFB 具有很大的发展潜力，特别是在高能量/功率（E/P）比的情况下。另一方面，与五氧化二钒生产相关的影响较大，这就是为什么含钒矿石的来源和处理是进一步降低与 VRFB 制造相关的环境影响的关键。虽然与锂离子电池（LIB）相比，VRFB 的效率较低是一个劣势，但它的可回收性要高得多。从这个意义上说，在比较非常不同的电池系统时，采用从摇篮到摇篮的生命周期观点的重要性，可以突出进一步研究这一主题的重要性。
