Environmental assessment of a new generation battery: The magnesium-sulfur system.

Information about the potential environmental impacts of post-lithium batteries is scarce. For this reason, this work provides a prospective life-cycle assessment of a hypothetical commercial MgS battery based on primary information obtained for a prototype cell. The Mg-S battery is found to have a good environmental performance with potential to outperform also current lithium-ion batteries in terms of environmental impacts. However, this applies only if the assumed evolutions of the cell composition are achieved together with comparable performance in terms of battery lifespan. The initial (non-optimized) prototype cell cannot compete with current LIB in terms of energy density or environmental friendliness, mainly due to the high share of non-active components, decreasing its performance substantially. The use of exclusively abundant materials with comparably low environmental impacts within the cell is the major strength of the MgS battery, leaving the energy-intensive process steps as the remaining critical contributors to the total environmental impacts i.e., the cell manufacturing and magnesium and aluminium metal production. Here, the use of renewable electricity and non-fossil sources for process heat are the keys for further improving its environmental performance.