2023-12-13 チャルマース工科大学
◆欧州委員会によれば、再生可能エネルギーシステムや電気自動車への移行に伴い、クリティカルな電池原料への需要が急増する見込みであり、ナトリウムイオン電池はその有望な技術とされています。
◆研究者らは、ナトリウムイオン電池が鉱物資源の希少性において優れ、気候への影響も同等かそれ以下であることをライフサイクルアセスメントで確認しました。
◆ナトリウムイオン電池の主な利点は、原材料が豊富であり、世界中で入手可能であることです。これは、ナトリウムイオン電池が将来の持続可能なエネルギー貯蔵の新たな選択肢となり、地政学的リスクや特定の地域への依存を減少させる可能性があることを示唆しています。
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.cision.com/chalmers/r/resource-efficient-and-climate-friendly-with-sodium-ion-batteries,c3892103
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13452
豊富な元素から作られたナトリウムイオン電池の前向きライフサイクル評価 Prospective life cycle assessment of sodium-ion batteries made from abundant elements
Sanna Wickerts, Rickard Arvidsson, Anders Nordelöf, Magdalena Svanström, Patrik Johansson
Journal of Industrial Ecology Published: 13 November 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13452
Abstract
Batteries are enablers for reducing fossil-fuel dependency and climate-change impacts. In this study, a prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) of large-scale production of two different sodium-ion battery (SIB) cells is performed with a cradle-to-gate system boundary. The SIB cells modeled have Prussian white cathodes and hard carbon anodes based only on abundant elements and thus constitute potentially preferable options to current lithium-ion battery (LIB) cells from a mineral resource scarcity point of view. The functional unit was 1 kWh theoretical electricity storage capacity, and the specific energy density of the cells was 160 Wh/kg. Data for the cathode active material come from a large-scale facility under construction and data for the SIB cell production is based on a large-scale LIB cell gigafactory. For other SIB cell materials, prospective inventory data was obtained from a generic eight-step procedure developed, which can be used by other LCA practitioners. The results show that both SIB cells indeed have considerably lower mineral resource scarcity impacts than nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC)-type LIB cells in a cradle-to-gate perspective, while their global warming impacts are on par. Main recommendations to SIB manufacturers are to source fossil-free electricity for cell production and use hard carbon anodes based on lignin instead of phenolic resin. Additionally, since none of the assessed electrolytes had clearly lower cradle-to-gate impacts than any other, more research into SIB electrolyte materials with low environmental and resource impacts should be prioritized. An improvement of the SIB cell production model would be to obtain large-scale production data specific to SIB cells.
