School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Nov 27;17(23):8828. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17238828.
The main research direction for the disposal of spent lithium-ion batteries is focused on the recovery of precious metals. However, few studies exist on the recycling of LiFePO electric vehicle (EV) batteries because of their low recycling value. In addition, a detailed life cycle inventory (LCI) of waste plays a significant role in its life cycle assessment (LCA) for an environmental perspective. In this study, an end-of-life (EOL) LiFePO EV battery is disposed to achieve the LCI result. The approach comprises manual dismantling of the battery pack/module and crushing and pyrolysis of cells. The authors classify the dismantling results and use different disposal methods, such as recycling or incineration. Regarding the environmental emissions during pyrolysis, the authors record and evaluate the results according to the experimental data, the bill of materials (BOM), the mass conservation, and the chemical reaction equations. In addition, the electricity power demand is related to the electricity mix in China, and the waste gases and solid residue are treated by using neutralization and landfill, respectively. Finally, the authors integrate the LCI data with analysis data and a background database (Ecoinvent). After the integration of the total emission and consumption data, the authors obtained the total detailed LCI resulting from the disposal of the LiFePO vehicle battery. This LCI mainly includes the consumption of energy and materials, and emissions to air, water, and soil, which can provide the basis for the future LCA of LiFePO (LFP) batteries. Furthermore, the potential of industrial scale process research on the disposal of spent LiFePO batteries is discussed.
废弃锂离子电池处理的主要研究方向集中在回收贵金属上。然而，由于其回收价值较低，很少有研究关注 LiFePO 电动汽车 (EV) 电池的回收。此外，从环境角度来看，废物详细生命周期清单 (LCI) 在其生命周期评估 (LCA) 中起着重要作用。在这项研究中，处理报废的 LiFePO EV 电池以获得 LCI 结果。该方法包括电池组/模块的手动拆卸以及电池的破碎和热解。作者对拆卸结果进行分类，并采用不同的处理方法，例如回收或焚烧。关于热解过程中的环境排放，作者根据实验数据、物料清单 (BOM)、质量守恒和化学反应方程式记录和评估结果。此外，电力需求与中国的电力组合有关，废气和固体残渣分别通过中和和填埋进行处理。最后，作者将 LCI 数据与分析数据和背景数据库 (Ecoinvent) 集成。在整合总排放量和消耗数据后，作者获得了 LiFePO 车辆电池处置的总详细 LCI。该 LCI 主要包括能源和材料的消耗以及空气、水和土壤的排放，可为未来 LiFePO (LFP) 电池的 LCA 提供依据。此外，还讨论了废弃 LiFePO 电池处理的工业规模工艺研究的潜力。
