Final Report Summary - SUBAT (Sustainable batteries)
The SUBAT project allowed defining an overall view of all aspects of the automotive traction battery market, in order to provide the European Commission with a valuable policy support tool that assisted in tracing the pathways for the sustainable transport of the future.
The SUBAT consortium, composed of three universities, VUB, ULB and DESA on the one hand, and four associations, AVERE, Citelec, Cereveh and CEI, on the other, made therefore a comprehensive and complete assessment of commercially available and forthcoming battery technologies in the world.
The composition of the consortium, entailing no manufacturer, guaranteed a total neutrality of the study that was composed of:
- a technical assessment comparing their performances for full EV and HEV (specific energy, specific power, proven cycle life and calendar life, life cycle cost analysis, operation at extreme temperature, charge acceptance, maintenance issues, safety, energetical efficiency of the battery systems, availability of recycling process at industrial stage, operation during applications). SUBAT also took into account the status of these batteries as to their availability as commercial products.
- an environmental assessment in order to be able to give them an environmental score which could designate them as being a sustainable solution or not. A life-cycle-analysis approach investigated availability of primary materials, environmental impact of extraction and manufacturing of the battery, emissions from the battery during use, release of components in case of accident, recycling of active materials, production of non-recyclable waste and environmental impact of recycling processes.
- an economical assessment with both a micro-economical analysis of production, manufacturing cost of the batteries, forecast cost for the consumers and a macro-economical study to take into account the position of battery manufacturers on the global market, assessing European versus non-European products and influence on the European trade balance.
For all batteries, the technical state-of-the-art was analysed, focusing on the typical characteristics which are relevant for the selected applications: the battery-electric vehicle and the hybrid vehicle. The approach focused on the battery considered as a system. State-of-the-art battery systems need in fact to be considered beyond the 'cell' level, considering the battery as a black box encompassing ancillary components such as the battery management system. The issue of battery management systems was particularly considered taking into account their influence on the battery efficiency, life time and operating performance. A selection procedure has been performed to select the best adapted software tool to perform the life cycle analysis. The evaluation of the different commercially available software tools was based on numerous criteria which can be grouped in: 'service', 'functionality' and 'database'. This procedure resulted in the selection of the Simapro software tool, developed by PreConsult (the Netherlands).
The outcome of work package 1 was a full technical overview of battery technology; this document was a satisfactory outcome even beyond the mere scope of SUBAT, since it allows technical assessment of battery technologies as a key information tool to potential users.
Work package 2 made a full environmental assessment of industrial battery systems to be used in electric and hybrid vehicle applications, based on a life cycle analysis, and taking the nickel-cadmium battery as a benchmark. Hence, the objective was to calculate the environmental impact taking into account the input and output flows of both materials and energy related to the different steps in the whole chain of activities required for production, use and dismantling (cradle tot grave).
Work package 3 made an economical assessment of the potential use, for electrically propelled vehicle applications, of alternative advanced battery technologies in lieu of the current ones such as nickel-cadmium, in terms of total expected life cycle costs for the consumer, as well as the consequences for the European industry.
This work package made in fact two separate studies: The micro-economical study, which analysed all factors that contribute to the cost of a battery for the user and the macro-economical study, which took into account the position of battery manufacturers on the global market, assessing European versus non-European products and influence on the European trade balance and perspectives by 2010.
Work package 4 gathered all data necessary for the execution of Work package 1 to 3 and acted as a clearinghouse for all information that is relevant for the SUBAT project. The whole chain of activities, required for the production of a certain product was taken into consideration. Both emissions of potentially harmful substances and consumption of natural resources were analysed. In this way, different technical systems producing the comparable utility could be followed from cradle to grave and can be compared with regard to their impacts on the environment.
Problems encountered in the execution of Work package 4 were mostly related to the collection of enough reliable data, many of which are proprietary and demanded an effort from the data supplier. For this reason, some of the less used battery technologies have only been submitted to a qualitative LCA study with limited scope. For the main technologies taken into account (Pb, NiCd, NiMH, NaNiCl, Li-ion) however, work package 4 succeeded in gathering more data; the soundness of the model towards these data has been underlined with a sensitivity analysis in work package 2. The outcome of work package 4 has allowed the other work programmes to perform as desired.
Finally, work package 5 provided an overall assessment of the battery technologies to be considered in SUBAT, uniting the outcomes of work package 1 to 3 in a comprehensive approach encompassing all relative issues.
The battery technologies have been compared and ranked based on different parameters (environmental, technical, economic parameters). These parameters could result in contradictory rankings. To integrate the conclusions of the different work packages, a multi-criteria analysis has been performed. This method provided the possibility to obtain an objective ranking of the different battery technologies based on different parameters (environmental, technological, and economic) as well as on different perspectives (political, consumer, manufacturer). The different perspectives allowed the consortium to stress the aspects the respective stakeholders have and to compare the results of the different rankings. Additionally, a presumed evolution of the different technologies was simulated and in order to compare the 'potential' of the different technologies at the 2012 horizon.
The SUBAT consortium, composed of three universities, VUB, ULB and DESA on the one hand, and four associations, AVERE, Citelec, Cereveh and CEI, on the other, made therefore a comprehensive and complete assessment of commercially available and forthcoming battery technologies in the world.
The composition of the consortium, entailing no manufacturer, guaranteed a total neutrality of the study that was composed of:
- a technical assessment comparing their performances for full EV and HEV (specific energy, specific power, proven cycle life and calendar life, life cycle cost analysis, operation at extreme temperature, charge acceptance, maintenance issues, safety, energetical efficiency of the battery systems, availability of recycling process at industrial stage, operation during applications). SUBAT also took into account the status of these batteries as to their availability as commercial products.
- an environmental assessment in order to be able to give them an environmental score which could designate them as being a sustainable solution or not. A life-cycle-analysis approach investigated availability of primary materials, environmental impact of extraction and manufacturing of the battery, emissions from the battery during use, release of components in case of accident, recycling of active materials, production of non-recyclable waste and environmental impact of recycling processes.
- an economical assessment with both a micro-economical analysis of production, manufacturing cost of the batteries, forecast cost for the consumers and a macro-economical study to take into account the position of battery manufacturers on the global market, assessing European versus non-European products and influence on the European trade balance.
For all batteries, the technical state-of-the-art was analysed, focusing on the typical characteristics which are relevant for the selected applications: the battery-electric vehicle and the hybrid vehicle. The approach focused on the battery considered as a system. State-of-the-art battery systems need in fact to be considered beyond the 'cell' level, considering the battery as a black box encompassing ancillary components such as the battery management system. The issue of battery management systems was particularly considered taking into account their influence on the battery efficiency, life time and operating performance. A selection procedure has been performed to select the best adapted software tool to perform the life cycle analysis. The evaluation of the different commercially available software tools was based on numerous criteria which can be grouped in: 'service', 'functionality' and 'database'. This procedure resulted in the selection of the Simapro software tool, developed by PreConsult (the Netherlands).
The outcome of work package 1 was a full technical overview of battery technology; this document was a satisfactory outcome even beyond the mere scope of SUBAT, since it allows technical assessment of battery technologies as a key information tool to potential users.
Work package 2 made a full environmental assessment of industrial battery systems to be used in electric and hybrid vehicle applications, based on a life cycle analysis, and taking the nickel-cadmium battery as a benchmark. Hence, the objective was to calculate the environmental impact taking into account the input and output flows of both materials and energy related to the different steps in the whole chain of activities required for production, use and dismantling (cradle tot grave).
Work package 3 made an economical assessment of the potential use, for electrically propelled vehicle applications, of alternative advanced battery technologies in lieu of the current ones such as nickel-cadmium, in terms of total expected life cycle costs for the consumer, as well as the consequences for the European industry.
This work package made in fact two separate studies: The micro-economical study, which analysed all factors that contribute to the cost of a battery for the user and the macro-economical study, which took into account the position of battery manufacturers on the global market, assessing European versus non-European products and influence on the European trade balance and perspectives by 2010.
Work package 4 gathered all data necessary for the execution of Work package 1 to 3 and acted as a clearinghouse for all information that is relevant for the SUBAT project. The whole chain of activities, required for the production of a certain product was taken into consideration. Both emissions of potentially harmful substances and consumption of natural resources were analysed. In this way, different technical systems producing the comparable utility could be followed from cradle to grave and can be compared with regard to their impacts on the environment.
Problems encountered in the execution of Work package 4 were mostly related to the collection of enough reliable data, many of which are proprietary and demanded an effort from the data supplier. For this reason, some of the less used battery technologies have only been submitted to a qualitative LCA study with limited scope. For the main technologies taken into account (Pb, NiCd, NiMH, NaNiCl, Li-ion) however, work package 4 succeeded in gathering more data; the soundness of the model towards these data has been underlined with a sensitivity analysis in work package 2. The outcome of work package 4 has allowed the other work programmes to perform as desired.
Finally, work package 5 provided an overall assessment of the battery technologies to be considered in SUBAT, uniting the outcomes of work package 1 to 3 in a comprehensive approach encompassing all relative issues.
The battery technologies have been compared and ranked based on different parameters (environmental, technical, economic parameters). These parameters could result in contradictory rankings. To integrate the conclusions of the different work packages, a multi-criteria analysis has been performed. This method provided the possibility to obtain an objective ranking of the different battery technologies based on different parameters (environmental, technological, and economic) as well as on different perspectives (political, consumer, manufacturer). The different perspectives allowed the consortium to stress the aspects the respective stakeholders have and to compare the results of the different rankings. Additionally, a presumed evolution of the different technologies was simulated and in order to compare the 'potential' of the different technologies at the 2012 horizon.