Life Cycle Assessment of Sodium-Nickel-Chloride Batteries

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-156-2_23How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Sodium-nickel-chloride battery; Mini grid applications; Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

Battery storage systems are a crucial factor for the decarbonization of energy systems, to balance the fluctuating energy generation of renewable energy sources. However, some battery types have disadvantages regarding their environmental impact, due to their material composition. Recently, sodium-nickel-chloride (NaNiCl₂) batteries are considered for a wider range of application, especially for off-grid storage applications.

NaNiCl₂ batteries offer several advantages: Due to the ceramic electrolyte the battery has no electrochemical self-discharge. The batteries have a high tolerance toward overcharging and deep discharging. The materials are not as expensive and rare as materials for alternative battery types. Manufacturers state that both discharge and charge operations are nearly independent of outside temperature. Furthermore, the batteries are expected to have a lifetime of more than 15 years or 4,500 charging cycles. However, when in stand-by, the battery still needs a stable temperature between 250 ℃ and 320 ℃, to keep the electrodes in a molten state. This is leading to a certain self-discharge, limiting the feasible applications of the battery.

Facing these benefits and downsides of NaNiCl₂ batteries, this paper aims to analyse their ecological impacts based on a Life Cycle Assessment using the example of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It addresses the research question whether NaNiCl₂ batteries offer advantages compared to alternative battery types, such as lithium-ion and lead-acid. The assessment is based on the analysis of a Bill-of-Materials and implemented for the use-case of a solar mini grid in Tema, Ghana. It considers two scenarios each regarding end-of-life (EoL) and battery lifetime. Depending on the scenario, the GHG emissions of the NaNiCl₂ battery amount to 9.1 – 22.7 g CO₂eq per kWh discharged and consumed, compared to 31.3 g CO₂eq for lithium-ion and 122.1 g CO₂eq for lead-acid batteries. The GHG emissions of the whole mini grid are decreased by 32%, if NaNiCl₂ batteries are implemented, compared to a mini grid configuration based on a mix of NaNiCl₂, lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Malina Nikolic
AU  - Nora Schelte
AU  - Michele Velenderic
AU  - Frederick Adjei
AU  - Semih Severengiz
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/05/25
TI  - Life Cycle Assessment of Sodium-Nickel-Chloride Batteries
BT  - Proceedings of the International Renewable Energy Storage  Conference (IRES 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 336
EP  - 362
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-156-2_23
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-156-2_23
ID  - Nikolic2023
ER  -