Prospective life cycle assessment of a structural batteryShow others and affiliations
2019 (English)In: Sustainability, E-ISSN 2071-1050, Vol. 11, no 20, article id 5679
Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
With increasing interest in reducing fossil fuel emissions, more and more development is focused on electric mobility. For electric vehicles, the main challenge is the mass of the batteries, which significantly increase the mass of the vehicles and limits their range. One possible concept to solve this is incorporating structural batteries; a structural material that both stores electrical energy and carries mechanical load. The concept envisions constructing the body of an electric vehicle with this material and thus reducing the need for further energy storage. This research is investigating a future structural battery that is incorporated in the roof of an electric vehicle. The structural battery is replacing the original steel roof of the vehicle, and part of the original traction battery. The environmental implications of this structural battery roof are investigated with a life cycle assessment, which shows that a structural battery roof can avoid climate impacts in substantive quantities. The main emissions for the structural battery stem from its production and efforts should be focused there to further improve the environmental benefits of the structural battery. Toxicity is investigated with a novel chemical risk assessment from a life cycle perspective, which shows that two chemicals should be targeted for substitution. © 2019 by the authors.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI AG , 2019. Vol. 11, no 20, article id 5679
Keywords [en]
Chemical risk assessment, Environmental engineering, LCA, Lightweight, Multifunctional material, Prospective
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-40605DOI: 10.3390/su11205679Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85073981782OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-40605DiVA, id: diva2:1369595
Note
Funding details: Computing Research Association, CRA; Funding details: 738085; Funding details: Vetenskapsrådet, VR, 621-2014-4577, 2017-03898; Funding details: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, AFOSR, FA9550-17-1-0244; Funding text 1: This research was funded by the XPRES initiative, the Swedish Research Council, projects 2017-03898 and 621-2014-4577, the strategic innovation program LIGHTer (funding provided by Vinnova, the Swedish Energy Agency and Formas), H2020 Clean Sky II project no. 738085 and by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award number FA9550-17-1-0244. The LCA and CRA have been carried out by RISE IVF in close cooperation with the structural battery research group (Kombatt) at the Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The results of the LCA and CRA was communicated to the structural battery research group in an idea generation workshop in order to make the most possible use of the LCA results. It resulted in 35 ideas aiming at improving the environmental performance of a structural battery.
2019-11-122019-11-122023-05-25Bibliographically approved