![]() ![]() Markets for energy storage are under development as energy regulators in various locations transition to cleaner energy sources. Because considerable value is embedded in manufactured lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), it has been suggested that their use should be cascaded through a hierarchy of applications to optimize material use and life-cycle impacts 2. In the waste management hierarchy, re-use is considered preferable to recycling (Fig. Given that the environmental footprint of manufacturing electric vehicles is heavily affected by the extraction of raw materials and production of lithium ion batteries, the resulting waste streams will inevitably place different demands on end-of-life dismantling and recycling systems. This waste presents a number of serious challenges of scale in terms of storing batteries before repurposing or final disposal, in the manual testing and dismantling processes required for either, and in the chemical separation processes that recycling entails. Although re-use and current recycling processes can divert some of these wastes from landfill, the cumulative burden of electric-vehicle waste is substantial given the growth trajectory of the electric-vehicle market. Making conservative assumptions of an average battery pack weight of 250 kg and volume of half a cubic metre, the resultant pack wastes would comprise around 250,000 tonnes and half a million cubic metres of unprocessed pack waste, when these vehicles reach the end of their lives. In 2017, sales of electric vehicles exceeded one million cars per year worldwide for the first time 1. The electric-vehicle revolution, driven by the imperatives to decarbonize personal transportation in order to meet global targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality in urban centres, is set to change the automotive industry radically. ![]()
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