Patel Anisha N, Lander Laura, Ahuja Jyoti, Bulman James, Lum James K H, Pople Julian O D, Hales Alastair, Patel Yatish, Edge Jacqueline S
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Department of Engineering, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Front Chem. 2024 Apr 8;12:1358417. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1358417. eCollection 2024.
Net zero targets have resulted in a drive to decarbonise the transport sector worldwide through electrification. This has, in turn, led to an exponentially growing battery market and, conversely, increasing attention on how we can reduce the environmental impact of batteries and promote a more efficient circular economy to achieve real net zero. As these batteries reach the end of their first life, challenges arise as to how to collect and process them, in order to maximise their economical use before finally being recycled. Despite the growing body of work around this topic, the decision-making process on which pathways batteries could take is not yet well understood, and clear policies and standards to support implementation of processes and infrastructure are still lacking. Requirements and challenges behind recycling and second life applications are complex and continue being defined in industry and academia. Both pathways rely on cell collection, selection and processing, and are confronted with the complexities of pack disassembly, as well as a diversity of cell chemistries, state-of-health, size, and form factor. There are several opportunities to address these barriers, such as standardisation of battery design and reviewing the criteria for a battery's end-of-life. These revisions could potentially improve the overall sustainability of batteries, but may require policies to drive such transformation across the industry. The influence of policies in triggering a pattern of behaviour that favours one pathway over another are examined and suggestions are made for policy amendments that could support a second life pipeline, while encouraging the development of an efficient recycling industry. This review explains the different pathways that end-of-life EV batteries could follow, either immediate recycling or service in one of a variety of second life applications, before eventual recycling. The challenges and barriers to each pathway are discussed, taking into account their relative environmental and economic feasibility and competing advantages and disadvantages of each. The review identifies key areas where processes need to be simplified and decision criteria clearly defined, so that optimal pathways can be rapidly determined for each end-of-life battery.
净零目标推动了全球交通运输部门通过电气化实现脱碳。这反过来又促使电池市场呈指数级增长，反之，人们也越来越关注如何减少电池对环境的影响，并促进更高效的循环经济以实现真正的净零排放。随着这些电池首次使用寿命的结束，如何收集和处理它们以在最终回收之前最大限度地提高其经济利用率成为了挑战。尽管围绕这一主题的研究工作日益增多，但对于电池可能采用的途径的决策过程仍未得到充分理解，并且仍然缺乏支持流程和基础设施实施的明确政策和标准。回收利用和二次利用应用背后的要求和挑战十分复杂，仍在行业和学术界不断明确。这两种途径都依赖于电池的收集、筛选和处理，并且面临着电池组拆解的复杂性，以及电池化学组成、健康状态、尺寸和外形因素的多样性。有多种机会可以克服这些障碍，例如电池设计的标准化以及审查电池报废的标准。这些修订可能会提高电池的整体可持续性，但可能需要政策推动整个行业的这种转变。本文研究了政策在引发偏向一种途径而非另一种途径的行为模式方面的影响，并提出了政策修订建议，以支持二次利用渠道，同时鼓励高效回收行业的发展。本综述解释了报废电动汽车电池可能遵循的不同途径，即在最终回收之前，要么立即回收，要么在各种二次利用应用中之一进行使用。讨论了每种途径的挑战和障碍，同时考虑了它们相对的环境和经济可行性以及各自的竞争优势和劣势。该综述确定了需要简化流程和明确界定决策标准的关键领域，以便能够迅速为每个报废电池确定最佳途径。
