Exploring recycling options in battery supply chains – a life cycle sustainability assessment
Jan‐Linus Popien, Christian Thies, Thomas Spengler
Abstract
The increasing demand for battery raw materials is driving countries around the world to establish recycling networks to obtain secondary materials for their battery production. However, the establishment of recycling networks is still at an early stage of development and analysis is needed to support decision-makers in the deployment of recycling networks. Therefore, this paper assesses the environmental, economic, and social impacts of three different recycling networks that vary in size and number of recycling sites in Germany. It also evaluates the effect of different battery sizes and chemistries on favorable recycling networks and compares the impacts related to primary and secondary materials. The results indicate that large and centralized recycling facilities are advantageous. They also show that secondary materials offer a great opportunity to reduce environmental, economic, and social impacts.