When calculating the net carbon footprint benefit of using Li-ion batteries global warming due to CO2 and greenhouse gases released due to the following should be considered:
- Extract and refine minerals used to make batteries:
- build and setup of mineral extraction machinery, plants and transportation vehicles
- power vehicles and machinery to extract raw minerals from earth
- power machinery to refine/purify raw minerals into usable form
- transport purified minerals to cell manufacturers - Manufacture cells/batteries/packs:
- build and setup of cell manufacturing machinery and plants
- manufacturing of cells and packs on automated assembly lines
- charging cells to 100% SOC in the manufacturing plant
- transportation of packs from manufacturing plant to assembly plant
- installation of packs into vehicles, grid-backup, etc. - Charging batteries:
- build and setup of li-ion battery charging stations
- original source of electricity feeding into charging stations
- build and setup of original electricity generation sources
- build and setup of transportation of electricity to battery charging stations - Manufacture battery pack use-cases:
- build and setup of plants to manufacture EV/grid-backup use-cases that employ li-ion batteries
- manufacture of EV/grid-backup use-cases products and services - Actual usage of li-ion batteries:
- usage profile of battery packs (high discharge rate vs. low discharge rates)
- actual battery pack usable life (based on SoC at end of life) - Reuse used battery packs (<80% max SoC capacity left)
- extraction of used battery packs from original applications/products
- recheck/evaluate used battery packs for redeployment
- actual redployment into 2nd reuse application
- original source of electricity feeding into charging stations - Recycle used battery packs at end of life (<40% max SoC capacity left)
- extraction of used battery packs from reuse/original application
- breakdown of batteries into cells; further into smaller constituents for refining
- build and setup of mineral extraction machinery, plants and transportation vehicles
- refining smaller constituents into bulk raw minerals
- power machinery to refine/purify bulk minerals into usable form
- transport purified minerals to cell manufacturers