Life Cycle Assessment of Lithium Ion Batteries with Silicon Nanowire Anode for Electric Vehicles

While silicon nanowires have demonstrated great potential for application on lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles, their environmental impacts have never been investigated. For a comprehensive environmental impact assessment, a life cycle assessment (LCA) has to be used to evaluate the potential impact of the product from cradle to grave. In this paper, the LCA is carried out on the environmental impacts of a high performance lithium ion battery system with silicon nanowire anode. The LCA modeling is based on laboratory data, literature references and the Gabi 6 Professional Database on a 43.2 kWh battery system for an EV with 10 year life. The environmental impacts of lithium ion battery system are analyzed in the whole life cycle.