As the largest battery producer, assessing the environmental impacts of China's battery-related minerals and technologies is crucial. However, studies that address the integrated issues of supply risks, vulnerability, and environmental impacts are relatively scarce for China.
Assessing the environmental impacts of battery materials and technologies. Damage to human health exceeds ecosystem damage for all elements. One primary element contributes to the environmental impacts of battery technologies. Environmental impact is significantly lower than both supply risk and vulnerability.
In NMC-811, the environmental impact score and the proportion of nickel are 9.09 and 92 %, respectively. In sodium-ion batteries, the main contributors to environmental impact are nickel for NNMO, iron for NFPF, titanium for NTP, and vanadium for NVP. The proportions of these elements in sodium-ion batteries are all above 80 % (Fig. 4 (a)).
To name a few, the environmental impacts of NCM batteries, NiMH batteries, and LiFePO 4 batteries in the production phase were compared in MajeauBettez et al. (2011) and it was found that NiMH batteries have the highest environmental burden in the production process. Similar work was also reported in Olofsson and Romare, 2013, Dunn et al., 2010.
Battery mineral production causes impacts on the environment and human health, which may increase the probability of supply restrictions imposed by exporting countries. As the largest battery producer, assessing the environmental impacts of China's battery-related minerals and technologies is crucial.
However, the environmental impact of EV batteries is a very complex issue, not only affected by material exploitation and battery manufacturing and production methods, but also by battery transportation, usage, recycling, or disposal methods (Wang et al., 2020, Zhiyong et al., 2020, ISO, 2006a).