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1 Life cycle assessment of lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM)

2 batteries for electric passenger vehicles

d
3 Xin Suna,b,c, Xiaoli Luoa,b, Zhan Zhanga,b, Fanran Meng , Jianxin Yanga,b *

a
4 State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese

5 Academy of Sciences, No.18 Shuangqing road, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, China

b
6 College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 80 East Zhongguancun

7 Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China

c
8 China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd, No. 68 East Xianfeng Road, Dongli District, Tianjin

9 300300, China

d
10 Sustainable Process Technologies Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD,

11 UK

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13 Abstract

14 This study evaluated and quantified the life cycle environmental impacts of lithium-ion power batteries (LIBs)

15 for passenger electric vehicles to identify key stages that contribute to the overall environmental burden and to find

16 ways to reduce this burden effectively. Primary data for the assessment were collected onsite from the one Chinese

17 leading LIB supplier, two leading cathode material producers and two battery recycling corporations from 2017 to

18 2019. Six environmental impact categories, including primary energy demand (PED), global warming potential

19 (GWP), acidification potential (AP), photochemical oxidant creation potential (POCP), eutrophication potential (EP)

20 and human toxicity potential (HTP), were considered in accordance with the ISO 14040/14044 standards. The

21 results indicate that material preparation stage is the largest contributor to the LIB’s life cycle PED, GWP, AP,

22 POCP, EP and HTP, with the cathode active material, wrought aluminum and electrolytes as the predominant

23 contributors. In the production stage, vacuum drying and coating and drying are the two main processes for all the

24 six impact categories. In the end-of-life stage, waste LIBs recycling could largely reduce the life cycle POCP and

25 HTP. Sensitivity analysis results replacing NCM 622 by NCM 811 as the cathode active material could increase all

26 the six environmental impacts. We hope this study is helpful to reduce the uncertainties associated with the life cycle

27 assessment of LIBs in existing literatures and to identify opportunities to improve the environmental performance of

28 LIBs within the whole life cycle.

29 Keywords Lithium-ion power battery; Battery electric vehicle; Life cycle assessment; Battery recycling

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31 1 Introduction

32 To save energy and reduce environmental emissions from the automotive industry, the Chinese government has

33 launched numerous policies and programs to promote new energy vehicles (NEVs), which include battery electric

34 vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCVs). In 2009, China

35 launched the “Ten Cities and Thousand Vehicles” project to promote NEVs. From 2009 to 2012, a total of 17,000

36 NEVs were promoted (MOST et al., 2009). Since 2014, China has been in the stage of large-scale promotion and

37 application of NEVs. In 2018, the cumulative sales of NEVs reached 3.0 million, accounting for more than 53% of

38 global cumulative sales (Wan, 2019). China has become the world's largest market for NEVs. By the end of 2019,

39 the stock of NEVs reached 3.8 million, accounting for 1.5% of the total vehicles in China (Jiang, 2020).

40 As the core component of NEVs, the capacity of power batteries has also increased by a significant amount

41 each year. China has been the world's largest power battery producer (MIIT, 2017). The cumulative installed

42 capacity of power batteries in China reached 144 GWh by the end of 2018, which represents the largest power

43 battery market worldwide (MIIT, 2019).

44 Currently, lithium-ion power batteries (LIBs), such as lithium manganese oxide (LiMn 2O4, LMO) battery,

45 lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, LFP) battery and lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (LiNixCoyMnzO2, NCM)

46 battery, are widely used in BEVs in China. According to the data from China Automotive Technology and Research

47 Center Co., Ltd, NCM batteries accounted for 42% of the cumulative installed capacity of power batteries and 77%

48 of the cumulative installed capacity of passenger BEVs until 2018 in China. Current types of NCM batteries in

49 Chinese market include old-fashioned NCM 111 (LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2), state-of-art NCM 622 (LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2)

50 and upcoming technology NCM 811 (LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2) while NCM 622 batteries have been the most commonly

51 used in electric passenger vehicles in China (CATARC and BIT, 2019).

52 NEV sales will maintain long-term growth in China benefiting from various policy supports. The “Technology

53 Roadmap For Energy Saving And New Energy Vehicles”(TRESNEV Steering Commitee China-SAE, 2016) shows

54 that the total sales of NEVs is forecasted to exceed 5 million in 2025 and 15 million in 2030. This projection will

55 lead to a huge number of demand and disposal of power batteries in China in the near future.

56 With the fast expansion of NEVs, China will be facing with challenges of waste power battery recycling and

57 disposal. The capacity of decommissioned power batteries was 1.2 GWh in 2018 in China, and it is expected to be

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58 more than 200,000 tons by 2020, which indicates that about 25 GWh of power batteries need to be recycled and

59 reused by 2020 (MIIT, 2019).

60 The environmental impacts associated with LIBs within the life cycle are key challenges that restrict the

61 sustainable development of NEVs. First, LIBs contain various types of valuable metal materials, which can produce

62 large amount of pollutants in the exploitation and extraction stages. In addition, the assembly process of LIBs can be

63 energy intensive (Dai et al., 2019; Ellingsen et al., 2017). Finally, the improper recycling and waste disposal

64 processes may incur negative environmental pollutions and human toxicity. Therefore, an environmental assessment

65 is required to quantify the overall environmental impacts of LIBs in BEVs application from a full life cycle

66 perspective.

67 To address the gaps in environmental aspects of LIBs production and promote NEVs development in China. In

68 this study, we aim to quantify the life cycle environmental impacts of NCM 622 batteries for electric passenger

69 vehicles using the primary data collected from the latest and representative onsite investigations in China covering

70 material production, LIB production and battery recycling plants. Inventory data is also supplemented by Ecoinvent

71 3.0, GREET 2018 database (ANL GREET, 2018) where available. The results can help identify the key contributors

72 to the LIB life cycle environmental impacts and propose strategies to reduce these impacts effectively.

73 2 Literature review

74 Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool to assess the potential environmental impacts and resources used

75 throughout a product's life cycle, i.e., from material preparation, via production and use phases, to waste

76 management (ISO, 2006). Until now, there have been several LCA studies of LIBs. Notter et al. (2010) conducted

77 an early LCA study of LMO batteries and the contributions to the environmental burden caused by different battery

78 materials were analyzed. USEPA (2013) conducted a LCA study to bring together and use life cycle inventory data

79 directly provided by LIB suppliers, manufacturers, and recyclers. (Ellingsen et al., 2014) studied the cradle-to-gate

80 environmental impacts of NCM batteries by using midpoint indicators, which include 13 impact categories. Kim et

81 al. (2016) chose a commercial BEV and assessed the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other air

82 emissions of traction batteries.

83 In addition, other scientists have provided richer perspectives and deeper discussions. MajeauBettez et al.

84 (2011) compared the environmental impacts of three different LIBs, NCM, NiMH, and LFP batteries, during

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85 production and operation phases. They concluded that NiMH batteries have the highest environmental burden,

86 followed by NCM and then LFP. Li et al. (2014) and Deng et al. (2017) reported the environmental impacts of next-

87 generation LIBs compared with conventional LIBs to support the selection and development of future LIBs.

88 Ellingsen et al. (2017) pointed out that both Notter et al. (2010) and Dunn et al. (2012) neglected processes in cell

89 manufacturing and therefore underestimated the energy demand. Ellingsen et al. (2017) indicated that USEPA

90 (2013) reported very different energy use associated with cell manufacturing and pack assembly for NCM, LFP, and

91 LMO batteries without clear explanations. Peters et al. (2017) provided a review of LCA studies on LIB and found

92 that only a few publications contributed original life cycle inventory (LCI) data. Peters et al. (2017) pointed that the

93 majority of existing studies focus on GHG emissions or energy demand only, while the impacts in other categories

94 such as toxicity might be even more important. Dai et al. (2019) analyzed the cradle-to-gate energy use, GHG

95 emissions, SOx, NOx, PM10 emissions, and water consumption associated with current industrial production of NCM

96 batteries. Dai et al. (2019) pointed out that the existing LCA studies of LIB, including the studies conducted by

97 Notter et al. (2010), MajeauBettez et al. (2011), Dunn et al. (2012) and (Ellingsen et al., 2014) were carried out

98 when automotive LIBs were at their early commercialization stage which might be different from current practices.

99 Besides, Dai et al. (2019) also identified knowledge gaps, such as the LCI data for graphite, LiPF6, and the

100 separator, which should be improved in future studies.

101 Moreover, some studies have deeply discussed the environmental impacts during the recycling process of LIBs.

102 (Dunn et al., 2012) calculated the energy consumed and the air emissions generated when recycling LMO batteries

103 in the U.S. and estimated that direct recycling could avoid 48% energy consumption associated with primary

104 material production. (Hendrickson et al., 2015) distinguished hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical recycling

105 methods of LMO, LFP, and NCM batteries, and the results showed that hydrometallurgy achieves greater energy

106 savings.

107 Although several LCA studies assessed LIBs, they presented significantly different results with large

108 uncertainties associated with data and results (Dai et al., 2019; Ellingsen et al., 2017; Peters et al., 2017). First, for

109 the background data, most of these studies used secondary LCI databases, disunified LCI databases, or literature

110 publications as data sources. In addition, for the foreground data, most studies were conducted based on previous

111 literature publications, engineering calculations and secondary data, and therefore did not reflect the current

112 commercial-scale automotive LIB production. Furthermore, for the life cycle stages, most studies only focused on

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113 production (cradle-to-gate), while only a few have clearly assessed the end-of-life stage. Therefore, it is essential to

114 assess the life cycle environmental impacts of LIBs with primary life cycle data in the context of China and identify

115 the potential for reducing the environmental impacts of LIBs.

116 3 Methods

117 3.1 Goal and scope

118 The goal of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of NCM batteries within the battery life cycle and

119 to identify the key contributory processes exploring improvement opportunities. In this study, the functional unit is

120 defined as 1 kWh of the NCM 622 pack for a passenger BEV. As shown in Figure 1, the system boundaries cover

121 the life cycle stages of the LIB, including material preparation, production and end-of-life stages. The use stage is

122 excluded in the LIB’s system boundaries due to the large uncertainty of some key parameters, such as the real world

123 driving cycles, different charging behaviors, battery replacement times, and the lack of unified allocation method of

124 the electricity consumption of the battery pack.

125 This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the ISO 14040 series standards for LCA.(ISO,

126 2006) SimaPro 8 software (PRé Sustainability, Netherlands) was used as a support tool to establish the LCA model

127 and perform the impact assessment.

128 3.2 Methods and databases

129 To collect the cradle to grave primary LCI data, this study conducted onsite investigations in six leading LIB

130 factories (with a total China market share of over 75% in 2018), five leading LIB material producer and two battery

131 recycling corporations from 2017 to 2019 in China. Considering the representative and completeness of the onsite

132 data, this study chose the primary data from two Chinese leading LIB suppliers (world’s top three), two leading

133 cathode material producer (world’s top five), and two battery recycling corporation (one owned by the world’s top

134 three LIB supplier, and the other one is the world's leading waste battery and cobalt nickel tungsten rare metal

135 recycling corporation). A sensitivity analysis has been conducted to evaluate the data uncertainties.

136 The upstream materials and energy flows for NCM 622 precursor and NCM 622 production were obtained

137 from onsite investigations of two leading cathode material producer in 2018 in China, which are of the world’s top

138 five NCM suppliers (Tables S 2 and S 3). For the LCI data of dimethyl carbonate (DMC), polyvinylidene fluoride

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139 (PVDF) and electronic parts, the foreground data were acquired from the GREET 2018 (Greenhouse Gases,

140 Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation) model,(ANL GREET, 2018). The background data were

141 primarily based on the China Automotive Life Cycle Database (CALCD) (Sun et al., 2015; Sun et al., 2017) with

142 Ecoinvent 3.0 database as supplements. The CALCD, a local Chinese LCI database developed by the China

143 Automotive Technology and Research Center, is a process-based life cycle database. Detailed data source

144 information is listed in Table S 1, Table S 2 and Table S 3 in the Supporting Information.

145 The CML-IA baseline V3.02 method developed by the Institute of Environmental Sciences of Leiden

146 University is selected as the base method. Six impact categories, including primary energy demand (PED), global

147 warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), photochemical oxidant creation potential (POCP),

148 eutrophication potential (EP) and human toxicity potential (HTP) are chosen from this approach to assess the impact

149 characterization results, and these categories are easily communicated, of general interest, and important with

150 respect to LIBs. As a comparison, ReCiPe Midpoint (H) V1.11 / World Recipe H method is applied to present ten

151 impact categories. The normalization and weighting phases are not included in this study.

152 3.3 Life cycle inventory analysis

153 3.3.1 Material preparation

154 For the investigated NCM 622 pack in this study, which is used by one passenger car, the pack energy capacity

155 is 72.5 kWh, the pack weight is 630 kg, and the cycle life is 2000 times or 10 years. The energy density of the

156 battery is 180 Wh/kg at the cell level and 115 Wh/kg at the pack level. Figure 2 shows the material compositions of

157 a 1 kWh LIB pack, including the cell materials and battery components. The cathode active material, NCM 622,

158 accounts for 26.7% of the total LIB mass. The anode active material, graphite, accounts for 15.3% of the total LIB

159 mass. The wrought aluminum used for the cathode electrode and enclosure represents 23.0% of the total LIB mass.

160 The copper used for the anode electrode and terminal represents 8.6% of the total LIB mass. The electrolytes,

161 including LiPF6, Ethylene Carbonate (EC) and DMC, account for 18.5% of the total LIB mass. The polypropylene

162 used for the separator comprises 1.5% of the total LIB mass. The battery components, including steel, thermal

163 insulation, coolant electronic parts and wrought aluminum, account for 9.3% of the LIB mass. Detailed material

164 compositions of NCM 622 pack are presented in Table S 4 in the Supporting Information.

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165 3.3.2 Production stage

166 The production stage of NCM 622 battery includes cell manufacturing, module and pack assembly. Cell

167 manufacturing consists of the mixing, coating and drying, vacuum drying and formation processes. The primary data

168 are based on a cell production capacity of nearly 30 GWh/yr. A process-based and attributional approach was used

169 to compile the inventory data.

170 In order to manufacture 1 kWh of cell, 72.0 MJ of electricity and 34.0 MJ of steam are consumed. The coating

171 and drying process (dry room) consumes 25.2 MJ (35%) of electricity and 17.0 MJ (50%) of steam for

172 dehumidification. Subsequently, the electrode vacuum drying process consumes 28.8 MJ (40%) of electricity and

173 17.0 MJ (50%) of steam. Then, the formation process consumes 10.8 MJ (15%) of electricity. In addition, the

174 mixing process and module and pack assembly process consumes 3.6 MJ (5%) of electricity, respectively. Energy

175 consumption for per kWh NCM 622 battery production are presented in Table S6 in the Supporting Information.

176 Therefore, considering the 4 MJ/kWh electricity required to fully charge the battery, it is estimated that the total

177 energy consumption of the LIB production is 110.0 MJ/kWh. The vacuum drying contributes the largest share

178 (42%) of the total energy demand, followed by the coating and drying process (38%). Formation accounts for 10%

179 of the total energy demand. While the contribution of mixing process and module and pack assembly process are

180 relatively lower than the other processes, accounting for 3%, respectively. Besides, 33.9 kg water is used in the

181 mixing process, and 20 g particulate matter is emitted during the 1 kWh cell manufacturing.

182 3.3.3 End-of-life stage

183 The current main recycling technology for waste LIB include physical dismantling (Saeki et al., 2004; Zhang et

184 al., 2007), pyrometallurgy (Bahat et al., 2007; Song et al., 2013) and hydrometallurgy (Chen et al., 2015; Nayaka et

185 al., 2016; Sun and Qiu, 2012). In hydrometallurgy the materials in LIBs are selectively dissolved by chemical solvents

186 and the metal elements are separated in the leachate. It could be used alone or in combination with pyrometallurgy

187 and does not require high equipment and processing cost (Nayaka et al., 2016). Under optimized experimental

188 conditions the recovery efficiency of 98.7% for Ni, 97.1% for Mn, 98.2% for Co and 81.0% for Li could be attained

189 (Chen et al., 2015). Due to the wide application of hydrometallurgical methods for recycling waste LIBs in China and

190 in order to simplify our model, it is assumed that used NCM 622 batteries are 100% collected and recycled by

191 hydrometallurgical methods to feed into NCM 622 production loop and thus avoid the production of primary materials,

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192 such as steel, aluminum, polypropylene and copper. From the onsite investigations in two Chinese large waste battery

193 recycling corporations, including the one owned by the world’s top three LIB supplier (Xie et al., 2015), and the other

194 one that is the world's leading waste battery and cobalt nickel tungsten rare metal recycling corporation, the inventory

195 data associated with the recycling of 1 kWh of waste LIBs are shown in Table 1. The primary data is based on a waste

196 battery treatment capacity of 3,000t/yr.

197 Table 1 Inventory Data for the Recycling of 1 kWh Waste NCM 622 Lithium-Ion Power Battery

Category Name Value Unit

Materials Waste NCM battery 1.0 kwh
H2SO4 (98%) 9.6 kg
HCl (30%) 0.3 kg
NaOH (30%) 16.3 kg
Na2CO3 0.2 kg
Ammonia (28%) 1.0 kg

Extracting reagent P507 17.4 g

Kerosene 42.5 g
H2O2 3.2 kg
Industrial water 121.6 kg

Li2CO3 1.1 kg
Energy Electricity 20.3 kWh
Natural gas 1.2 m3
Emissions Wastewater 86.9 kg
Ammonia nitrogen 0.5 g
CO2 0.6 kg

SO2 0.01 kg

Dust 3.1 kg
Recycled Polypropylene 0.1 kg
Substances Copper 0.7 kg
Aluminum 1.8 kg
Steel 0.1 kg
NCM Precursor 2.1 kg

198 4 Results and Discussion

199 4.1 Life cycle assessment results

200 The LCA results for the six environmental impact categories are shown in Figure 3. The material preparation

201 stage is the primary contributor to all of the six environmental impact categories, accounting for more than 95% of

202 the total value, respectively. These impacts are mainly attributed to the production of the cathode active material

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203 (NCM 622), wrought aluminum and DMC. For POCP and HTP, the contribution from the material preparation stage

204 takes account of around 200%, largely due to the production of wrought aluminum. The contribution of the production

205 stage is relatively lower than the material preparation stage, accounting for 20.3% of the total GWP, 12.8% of the total

206 PED and 9.2% of the total AP, 7.0% of the total POCP, around 2% of the total EP and HTP, respectively. In the

207 production stage, cell manufacturing is the main contributor (around 95%) for all six impact categories due to the high

208 energy consumption. For all six impact categories, the end-of-life stage contributions are negative. Waste NCM 622

209 battery recycling in the end-of-life stage can reduce 0.03 kg C2H4 e (105.2%) of the life cycle POCP and 41.6 kg 1,4-

210 DB e (139.8%) of the life cycle HTP, mainly because of the recycling of waste wrought aluminum. Besides, waste

211 NCM 622 battery recycling could also reduce 30.9 kg CO2 e (33.0%) of the life cycle GWP and 158.3 MJ (14.7%) of

212 the life cycle PED, due to the reproducing of NCM 622. The life cycle assessment results for per kg NCM 622 battery

213 are shown in Table S 7 in the Supporting Information.

214 Table 2 presents the LCIA results of 10 types of impact categories by using the ReCiPe Midpoint (H) V1.11 /

215 World Recipe H RECIPE method. It is found that the results of GWP, AP, POCP, EP and HTP are similar to those

216 assessed by the CML-IA baseline V3.02 method.

217 Table 2 Life cycle assessment results for per kWh NCM 622 battery (ReCiPe Midpoint (H) V1.11/ World Recipe H)

Impact category Unit Material Production End-of-life Total

Climate change (GWP) kg CO2 eq 105.47 19.01 -30.91 93.57
Terrestrial acidification (AP) kg SO2 eq 0.47 0.05 -0.03 0.49
Photochemical oxidant formation (POCP) kg NMVOC 0.34 0.04 -0.09 0.29
Freshwater eutrophication (EP) kg P eq 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.01
Marine eutrophication (EP) kg N eq 0.13 0.00 -0.11 0.02
Human toxicity (HTP) kg 1,4-DB eq 26.01 0.61 -14.09 12.53
Terrestrial ecotoxicity kg 1,4-DB eq 0.03 0.00 -0.02 0.01
Freshwater ecotoxicity kg 1,4-DB eq 21.43 0.00 -19.93 1.5
Particulate matter formation kg PM10 eq 0.15 0.01 -0.01 0.15
Metal depletion kg Fe eq 6.06 0.00 1.73 7.79
Fossil depletion kg oil eq 24.67 3.12 -3.65 24.14

218 4.2 Identification of significant environmental impacts

219 Figure 4 presents the relative contributions in the material preparation stage of 1 kWh NCM 622 battery. For

220 the PED and GWP, the cathode active material (NCM 622) and wrought aluminum are the top two contributors,

221 together accounting for around 75% of the battery materials. 60% of the AP, more than 40% of the PED and GWP is

222 contributed by the NCM 622. Wrought aluminum is the most substantial contributor to the POCP and HTP,

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223 accounting for more than 60% and 70% of the battery materials, respectively. For the EP, however, the predominant

224 contributor is the electrolytes DMC (73.3%), followed by NCM 622 (15.4%). Graphite contributes 10.8% for the

225 PED, 6.9% for the GWP, 4.2% for the AP and less than 2% in the other three impact categories in the material

226 preparation stage. For all the six impact categories, copper, LiPF6 and electronic parts account for less than 4%, 7%

227 and 7% of the battery materials, respectively.

228 Figure 5 shows the relative contributions in the production stage of 1 kWh NCM 622 battery. Vacuum drying

229 process accounts for the largest proportion (more than 40%) for all the six environmental impact categories,

230 followed by the coating and drying (around 36%), due to the large share of the energy demand in these two

231 processes. Formation contributes to 10%~15% for the six environmental impact categories. The mixing process and

232 module and pack assembly process account for less than 5% for the six environmental impact categories,

233 respectively.

234 4.3 Comparative analysis

235 We compare the GHG emissions of NCM battery production (material preparation and production) with

236 existing literature studies in Figure 6. The total GHG emissions are disaggregated and associated with cell materials,

237 battery components, cell manufacturing, module and pack assembly and others. Figure 6 reports great variation in

238 the overall production GHG emissions with results ranging between 73 and 200 kg CO2 e/kWh, showing different

239 contributions from cell materials, battery components, cell manufacturing and module and pack assembly. The result

240 for NCM battery production GHG emissions in this study is 124.5 kg CO2 e/kWh, which is similar to that reported

241 by USEPA (2013). The production GHG emissions determined by MajeauBettez et al. (2011) where inventory data

242 from Ecoinvent 2.2 database were used are nearly two times higher than this study. They based their energy data on

243 industry reports published nearly 15 years ago, at their early commercialization stage, therefore it might not reflect

244 current NCM battery production practices (Dai et al., 2019; Rydh and Sandén, 2005). It seems that Ellingsen et al.

245 (2014) and Kim et al. (2016) where inventory data from Ecoinvent 3.1 database were used overestimated the energy

246 consumption during the cell manufacturing process, which are more than three times higher than those in this study.

247 The GHG emissions of the plant in the study of Ellingsen et al. (2014) and the underutilization of the plant in the

248 study of Kim et al. (2016) would lead to the overestimation of energy intensity for cell production (Dai et al., 2019).

249 The GHG emissions for cell manufacturing of this study (NCM 622) is similar with those of the study of Dai et al.

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250 (2019) (NCM 111), because the energy consumption data of this process are both based on Chinese factories. The

251 GHG emissions for cell materials of this study is much higher than Dai et al. (2019) where inventory data were also

252 supplemented by GREET model, as our study is for NCM 622 which represents the state-of-art technology in China,

253 while Dai et al. (2019) analyzed NCM 111 which represents the old-fashioned technology in China. The proportion

254 of GHG emissions in the module and pack assembly is less than 1% for all the studies except MajeauBettez et al.

255 (2011) (3%).

256 4.4 Sensitivity analysis

257 As shown in the section 4.1, the material preparation stage is the primary contributor to all the six

258 environmental impact categories, especially for the cathode active material, NCM622. The current trend of NCM

259 battery technology is to replace NMC622 by NMC811. Therefore, the sensitivity analysis is performed to evaluate

260 the impacts of replacing NMC622 by NMC811. Based on expert consultation, the mass of cathode active material

261 and battery energy density of the LIB are assumed to be not change despite the changes of the cathode active

262 material chemistry . The sensitivity analysis results show that the total life cycle GWP, AP and POCP could be

263 increased by around 1%, while the total life cycle PED, EP and HTP could be increased slightly by less than 0.3%.

264 This is primarily because the increased content of NiSO4 in the production of NCM 811 Precursor results in

265 increased consumptions of steam, LiOH and oxygen for the final production of NCM 811 relative to per kg of NCM

266 622 (see Table S 2 and S 3 in the Supporting Information).

267 5 Conclusions

268 In this study, the environmental impacts of the most commonly used NCM 622 battery for passenger BEVs in

269 China were assessed throughout the life cycle. Primary data were collected from two Chinese leading LIB suppliers

270 (world’s top three), two leading cathode material producer (world’s top five), and two battery recycling corporations

271 (one is owned by the world’s top three LIB supplier, and the other one is the world's leading waste battery and

272 cobalt nickel tungsten rare metal recycling corporation) from 2017 to 2019. The evaluation is presented in terms of

273 six impact categories following the CML-IA baseline V3.02 method: primary energy demand (PED), global

274 warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), photochemical oxidant creation potential (POCP),

275 eutrophication potential (EP), and human toxicity potential (HTP). The study results can be listed as follows.

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276 Firstly, the material preparation stage is the largest contributor to all the six environmental impact categories,

277 largely due to the production of the cathode active material (NCM 622), wrought aluminum and electrolytes. The

278 contribution of the production stage is relatively lower than the material preparation stage. Waste LIB recycling in the

279 end-of-life stage could largely reduce the life cycle POCP and HTP of LIB, mainly because of the recycling of waste

280 wrought aluminum. Secondly, in the material preparation stage, the battery cell materials, including the cathode active

281 material and wrought aluminum are the predominant contributors to the PED and GWP. Wrought aluminum is the

282 most substantial contributor to the POCP and HTP, while the electrolytes are the predominant contributor to the EP.

283 Besides, electronic makes a considerable contribution to the HTP. In the production stage, vacuum drying and coating

284 and drying processes are the top two contributors. Finally, from the sensitivity analysis, replacing NMC622 by

285 NMC811 as the cathode active material could increase all the six environmental impacts.

286 However, the use stage is not included in the NCM 622 battery’s system boundaries due to the large uncertainty

287 of some key parameters, such as the real world driving cycles, different charging behaviors, battery replacement

288 times, and the lack of unified allocation method of the electricity consumption of the battery pack. Therefore, when

289 considering the whole LIB life cycle, it could cause quite different results for different impacts when including the

290 use stage which shall be evaluated in the future studies when the key information is available. In order to better

291 perform LIB eco-design, future LIB technologies should also emphasize by optimizing of the cathode active

292 material with the preference on the impacts of different life cycle stages.

293 In addition, with the progress of LIB technology, continued environmental LCA efforts combined with the cost

294 analysis based on primary data, especially for the recycling stage, are necessary to provide efficient strategies for

295 full life cycle environmental impact reduction in LIBs and the whole value chain in sustainable development of

296 BEVs.

297 Acknowledgements

298 Funding

299 This research was funded by the Key Projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.

300 71734006).

301 Role of the funding source

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302 The funding sources had no such involvement.

303 Conflicts of interest

304 None.

305

306

307 Nomenclature

Name Abbreviation
Acidification potential AP
Battery electric vehicles BEVs
China automotive life cycle database CALCD
Dimethyl carbonate DMC
Ethylene carbonate EC
Eutrophication potential EP
Fuel cell electric vehicles FCVs
Global warming potential GWP
Human toxicity potential HTP
Life cycle assessment LCA
Life cycle inventory LCI
Lithium iron phosphate LiFePO4, LFP
Lithium manganese oxide LiMn2O4, LMO
Lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide LiNixCoyMnzO2, NCM
Lithium-ion power batteries LIBs
Lithium-ion power battery LIB
New energy vehicles NEVs
Photochemical oxidant creation potential POCP
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles PHEVs
Polyvinylidene fluoride PVDF
Primary energy demand PED

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381 Figure captions

382 Figure 1 System boundaries of NCM 622 batteries excluding use phase

383 Figure 2 Material compositions of per kWh NCM 622 battery

384 Figure 3 Life cycle assessment results for per kWh NCM 622 battery (CML-IA baseline V3.02)

385 Figure 4 Relative contributions of per kWh NCM 622 battery material

386 Figure 5 Relative contributions of per kWh NCM 622 battery production

387 Figure 6 GHG emissions of per kWh NCM battery production

Input material, energy flows

NCM 622 battery life cycle system boundaries

Avoided raw material production

Polypropylene
Aluminum

precursor
NCM 622
Cathode material
NCM production
NCM precursor

Copper
Vacuum drying

Steel
Coating and
production

production

Mixing

drying

Module and pack

NCM recycling

Pretreatment

Waste NCM
Formation

Leaching

Sediment

Sintering
assembly

Cleaning
powder
Vacuum drying
Anode material

Coating and
production
production
Graphite

Mixing

drying

Material preparation Production stage End-of-life stage

Output to air, water and land

388
389 Figure 1 System boundaries of NCM 622 batteries excluding use phase

390

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391

392 Figure 2 Material compositions of per kWh NCM 622 battery. The material masses per kWh is calculated by (pack

393 energy density × the material mass percentage of the pack) ×1/1000

394

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395

396

397 Figure 3 Life cycle assessment results for per kWh NCM 622 battery (CML-IA baseline V3.02)

398

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399

400

401 Figure 4 Relative contributions of per kWh NCM 622 battery material

402

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403

404 Figure 5 Relative contributions of per kWh NCM 622 battery production

405

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406

407 Figure 6 GHG emissions of per kWh NCM battery production

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