Life cycle assessment of lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles in China

Promoting electric vehicle use and development is an effective way to reduce resource consumption and emission pollution toward sustainable development. However, electric vehicle power batteries which cause resource and environmental problems are a serious obstacle to the further development of electric vehicles. China is a major producer and user of electric vehicles, but no specific and extensive resource and environmental assessment system for power batteries has yet been developed. In this paper, lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are the most widely used in the Chinese electric vehicle market are investigated, the production, use, and recycling phases of power batteries are specifically analyzed based on life cycle assessment (LCA). Various battery assessment scenarios were set up based on the development of battery recycling in China, and a Monte Carlo analysis was conducted to compare the performance of the two types of batteries under the greenhouse gas emission targets. The results of the LCA study show that LFP batteries have better environmental performance than NCM batteries under overall conditions, but the energy efficiency in the use phase is inferior to NCM batteries, which have greater recycling value. Specifically, the processing of metals in power battery cathode materials is a major cause of resource and environmental problems, and the hydrometallurgical process in battery recycling solutions has better recycling results. In addition, battery recycling can reduce the resource and environmental impact by 5–30%, which is an effective means to reduce resource and environmental problems to achieve sustainable development.