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Prospective Life Cycle Assessment of a Model Magnesium Battery
Author(s) -
Bautista Sebastián P.,
Weil Marcel,
Baumann Manuel,
Montenegro Claudia Tomasini
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.202000964
Subject(s) - battery (electricity) , life cycle assessment , footprint , production (economics) , environmental impact assessment , key (lock) , process engineering , computer science , risk analysis (engineering) , environmental economics , biochemical engineering , reliability engineering , environmental science , engineering , business , paleontology , ecology , power (physics) , physics , computer security , quantum mechanics , biology , economics , macroeconomics
Energy‐storage systems are considered as a key technology for energy and mobility transition. Because traditional batteries have many drawbacks, there are tremendous efforts to develop so‐called postlithium systems. The magnesium–sulfur (MgS) battery emerges as one alternative. Previous studies of Mg–S batteries have addressed the environmental footprint of its production. However, the potential impacts of the use‐phase are not considered yet, due to its premature stage of development. Herein, a first prospective look at the potential environmental performance of a theoretical Mg–S battery for different use‐phase applications is given to fill this gap. By means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, an analysis of different scenarios and a comparison with other well‐established technologies are conducted. The results suggest that the environmental footprint of the Mg–S is comparable with that of the commercially available counterparts and potentially outperforms them in several impact categories. However, this can only be achieved if a series of technical challenges are first overcome.