Water-based manufacturing of lithium ion battery for life cycle impact mitigation

Abstract Water-based manufacturing processes are under development for greener manufacturing of lithium ion batteries but their environmental impacts are unclear with new introduced materials and a large consumption of deionized water. We report a life cycle assessment (LCA) study on the water-based manufacturing of the most popular NMC-graphite battery pack configured with 57 kWh capacity. A life cycle model has been developed based on experimental and mathematical studies of the water-based manufacturing processes. Per kg battery pack produced, the water-based manufacturing can reduce the manufacturing energy by 43% and lower the cradle-to-gate life cycle impacts by 0.6%∼88% over conventional battery manufacturing.