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The growth of the battery powered vehicle market will lead to an increasing amount of End of Life (EoL) electric vehicle battery systems (EVBSs) in the future. Although pointed out as a future challenge by research as well as industry, the analysis and design of EoL traction batteries' recycling networks have not been conducted extensively. Existing quantitative optimization models do not contain dynamic characteristics that are of importance for a growing market. We present a dynamic EoL battery reverse supply chain optimization model that allows planning over multiple periods and multiple supply chain layers while including capacity expansions of disassembling centers and recycling plants. The model is applied to a case study of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of battery electric vehicles that handles all EoL recycling activities for its batteries in a single stakeholder-driven network in Germany. The average EoL costs per EVBS were estimated to decrease by over 35% from 2030 to 2044 due to using larger processing facilities that benefit from economy of scale and lower transportation costs because more locations exist. The network change is driven by the growth of EoL EVBS supply., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

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Copyright of Chemie Ingenieur Technik (CIT) is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Combined LCA and MFA of hydro. and direct recycling routes for a closed-loop battery value from OEM's perspective. • Savings potential of GHG emissions compared to virgin material production for recycling routes and two NMC cathode. • Analysis of admixture ratios of direct recycled cathode active material and choice of allocation method over time. • Obligatory allocation rules of EoL processes for reliable and realizable LCAs are needed to ensure correct accounting. • Technological investigation of admixture ratios for all kinds of recycling processes needed. We conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) for two recycling processes, a hydrometallurgical and a direct recycling route. Both show ecological benefits compared to production with virgin material (between 2.76–4.55 kg CO2e/ kg battery for NMC111 and NMC811 less greenhouse gas emissions). In contrast to previous works, we combine the LCA results with a dynamic material flow model. This allows the evaluation of the influence on ecological benefits of admixture limits for directly recycled cathode material in a closed-loop recycling system over a time in which the newly produced battery systems and the amount of end-of-life traction batteries grows. We show that for such a closed-loop recycling system, the choice of different allocation methods, namely cut-off or avoided burden approach, may lead to significantly varying results of up to 85% in ecological benefits. We further conclude that combining production with both recycling routes can achieve the lowest greenhouse gas emissions for our closed-loop scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electro-mobility is considered a key strategy to reduce GHG emissions in the transport sector and to make individual mobility more sustainable. However, the production of electric vehicles is accompanied by high environmental impacts, mainly due to the resource intensive high-voltage battery systems. Hence, a prerequisite for sustainable electro-mobility – beside the provision of renewable energy for vehicle charging – is a well-functioning and efficient circular use system of electric vehicle battery systems (EVBs). While the production of EVBs has been continuously improved in recent years with high levels of automation to reduce production costs and to increase capacities, end-of-life (EoL) treatment of EVBs is still rather simplistic with rough manual disassembling before in most cases pyro-metallurgical treatment. In this paper, we argue for the need of industrial disassembly systems to reach higher levels of circularity. In the best case, these systems are highly automated and use lifecycle information including production and use-phase data for decision support to enable optimum utilization at a module or even cell level. These pathways include both second-life concepts such as repurposing or reconditioning and high-level direct recycling of active materials. To demonstrate the advantages of an industrial disassembling in EoL battery treatment, we systematically analyze different utilization pathways and we compare state-of-the-art treatment with an advanced disassembly system. The qualitative argumentation is substantiated by quantitative stochastic simulation as well as cost and lifecycle data. We show that only with a well-functioning industrial disassembling, efficient closed-loop-supply-chains (CLSCs) for EVBs can be achieved. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]