Resources, Recycling, Environment & Sustainability

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The Research Group for Resources, Recycling, Environment and Sustainability is responsible for the system analysis of energy storage systems through Life Cycle Assessment, Material Flow Analysis and related tools.

One major objective of the Research group is the cooperation with technology developers in order to incorporate sustainability aspects in the early development phases of battery systems. In this context technical system analysis is combined with life-cycle oriented environmental and economic system analysis.

This approach aims at creating a deeper understanding of the technological requirements, environmental impacts and economic feasibility of prospective battery systems.

By embedding sustainability aspects in the early technology design phase, potential innovation risks can be identified prospectively and minimized by appropriate measures. An essential task of our group is to provide relevant knowledge that can direct the development of battery systems towards the path of sustainability. Such knowledge can be used to support decision-making (e.g. selection of prospective anode materials).

Further activities prospectively examine potential value chains of selected future cell systems. Regarding the beginning of the chain, a potentially restricted future access to strategically important raw materials is considered as a possible obstacle for the introduction and success of technological innovations. For that reason we assess prospectively the availability of resources (e.g. lithium and transition metals) for the production of both traction batteries and stationary batteries.

Concerning the end of the chain, we also focus on the recyclability of electrochemical energy storage systems. Due to technical and economic reasons, current recycling technologies for batteries (most of which are still under development) do not recover all the materials from the battery cells (e.g. lithium is generally not recovered). A roadmap for this sector will help determine the technical, economic and environmental obstacles and identify ways to overcome these barriers. Furthermore, it has to be analyzed whether the recycling technologies currently under development are also suitable for novel cell systems developed by HIU, or if new or adjusted recycling technologies must be developed.

Regardless of the alternative, its economic and environmental effects will have to be assessed.