Recycling chains for lithium-ion batteries: A critical examination of current challenges, opportunities and process dependencies.

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) show high energy densities and are therefore used in a wide range of applications: from portable electronics to stationary energy storage systems and traction batteries used for e-mobility. Considering the projected increase in global demand for this energy storage technology, driven primarily by growth in e-vehicles, and looking at the criticality of some raw materials used in LIBs, the need for an efficient recycling strategy emerges. In this study, current state-of-the-art technologies for LIB recycling are reviewed and future opportunities and challenges, in particular to recover critical raw materials such as lithium or cobalt, are derived. Special attention is paid to the interrelationships between mechanical or thermal pre-treatment and hydro- or pyrometallurgical post-treatment processes. Thus, the unique approach of the article is to link processes beyond individual stages within the recycling chain. It was shown that influencing the physicochemical properties of intermediate products can lead to reduced recycling rates or even the exclusion of certain process options at the end of the recycling chain. More efforts are needed to improve information and data sharing on the exact composition of feedstock for recycling as well as on the processing history of intermediates to enable closed loop LIB recycling. The technical understanding of the interrelationships between different process combinations, such as pyrolytic or mechanical pre-treatment for LIB deactivation and metal separation, respectively, followed by hydrometallurgical treatment, is of crucial importance to increase recovery rates of cathodic metals such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium, but also of other battery components.

Efficiency and Carbon Footprint of the German Meat Supply Chain.

Meat production and consumption contribute significantly to environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These emissions can be reduced via various strategies ranging from production efficiency improvement to process optimization, food waste reduction, trade pattern change, and diet structure change. On the basis of a material flow analysis approach, we mapped the dry matter mass and energy balance of the meat (including beef, pork, and poultry) supply chain in Germany and discussed the emission reduction potential of different mitigation strategies in an integrated and mass-balance consistent framework. Our results reaffirmed the low energy conversion efficiency of the meat supply chain (among which beef was the least efficient) and the high GHG emissions at the meat production stage. While diet structure change (either reducing the meat consumption or substituting meat by edible offal) showed the highest emissions reduction potential, eliminating meat waste in retailing and consumption and byproducts generation in slaughtering and processing were found to have profound effect on emissions reduction as well. The rendering of meat byproducts and waste treatment were modeled in detail, adding up to a net environmental benefit of about 5% of the entire supply chain GHG emissions. The combined effects based on assumed high levels of changes of important mitigation strategies, in a rank order considering the level of difficulty of implementation, showed that the total emission could be reduced by 43% comparing to the current level, implying a tremendous opportunity for sustainably feeding the planet by 2050.

Environmental impacts of food waste in Europe.

Approximately 88 Million tonnes (Mt) of food is wasted in the European Union each year and the environmental impacts of these losses throughout the food supply chain are widely recognised. This study illustrates the impacts of food waste in relation to the total food utilised, including the impact from food waste management based on available data at the European level. The impacts are calculated for the Global Warming Potential, the Acidification Potential and the Eutrophication Potential using a bottom-up approach using more than 134 existing LCA studies on nine representative products (apple, tomato, potato, bread, milk, beef, pork, chicken, white fish). Results show that 186 Mt CO2-eq, 1.7 Mt SO2-eq. and 0.7 Mt PO4-eq can be attributed to food waste in Europe. This is 15 to 16% of the total impact of the entire food supply chain. In general, the study confirmed that most of the environmental impacts are derived from the primary production step of the chain. That is why animal-containing food shows most of the food waste related impacts when it is extrapolated to total food waste even if cereals are higher in mass. Nearly three quarters of all food waste-related impacts for Global Warming originate from greenhouse gas emissions during the production step. Emissions by food processing activities contribute 6%, retail and distribution 7%, food consumption, 8% and food disposal, 6% to food waste related impacts. Even though the results are subject to certain data and scenario uncertainties, the study serves as a baseline assessment, based on current food waste data, and can be expanded as more knowledge on the type and amount of food waste becomes available. Nevertheless, the importance of food waste prevention is underlined by the results of this study, as most of the impacts originate from the production step. Through food waste prevention, those impacts can be avoided as less food needs to be produced.