Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional energy storage system and innovative thermal energy storage system
As policies have been implemented globally to limit the production of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the effects of climate change, the generation of electricity by renewable technologies has started to increase. The development of sustainable energy storage solutions has also become more important. Th...
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doaj-317662dc71174bbabad3573ec00cc6d92021-10-01T05:11:53ZengElsevierInternational Journal of Thermofluids2666-20272021-11-0112100116Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional energy storage system and innovative thermal energy storage systemBorbala Rebeka David0Sean Spencer1Jeremy Miller2Sulaiman Almahmoud3Hussam Jouhara4Spirax Sarco Engineering PLC, Cheltenham GL51 9NQ, United KingdomSpirax Sarco Engineering PLC, Cheltenham GL51 9NQ, United KingdomSpirax Sarco Engineering PLC, Cheltenham GL51 9NQ, United KingdomSpirax Sarco Engineering PLC, Cheltenham GL51 9NQ, United KingdomHeat Pipe and Thermal Management Research Group, College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences, Brunel University London, UB8 3PH, United Kingdom; Corresponding author.As policies have been implemented globally to limit the production of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the effects of climate change, the generation of electricity by renewable technologies has started to increase. The development of sustainable energy storage solutions has also become more important. The continued use of conventional chemical batteries presents environmental issues such as heavy metal pollution and the use of unsustainable resources.An environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been conducted to analyse the environmental impact of an innovative Thermal Battery (TB) and was compared with the impact of a Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery (LIPB) using a “cradle-to-gate” approach to establish the system boundaries. The study used the findings from existing literature to determine the environmental impact of the LIPB. The life cycle inventory for the TB was constructed based on a model and available literature. In this regard, the two products were compared on 10 impact categories, and the results indicated that the TB performed better in 8 categories on average. The highest impact observed from the TB was in terrestrial ecotoxicity, where it emitted above 7000 times more than the LIPB, amounting to approximately 0.0153 after normalisation. The highest normalised environmental load in the study was indicated to be in the category of marine ecotoxicity by the LIPB at 0.27, which was significantly higher than any load for the TB. Overall, the results obtained are encouraging for the TB, but it is recommended that a field study is completed to verify the assumptions made in this paper and to achieve a better comparability with studies conducted similarly.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666202721000549Thermal energy storageLithium iron phosphate batteryLife cycle assessmentTerrestrial ecotoxicityEnvironmental impacts |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Borbala Rebeka David Sean Spencer Jeremy Miller Sulaiman Almahmoud Hussam Jouhara |
spellingShingle |
Borbala Rebeka David Sean Spencer Jeremy Miller Sulaiman Almahmoud Hussam Jouhara Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional energy storage system and innovative thermal energy storage system International Journal of Thermofluids Thermal energy storage Lithium iron phosphate battery Life cycle assessment Terrestrial ecotoxicity Environmental impacts |
author_facet |
Borbala Rebeka David Sean Spencer Jeremy Miller Sulaiman Almahmoud Hussam Jouhara |
author_sort |
Borbala Rebeka David |
title |
Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional energy storage system and innovative thermal energy storage system |
title_short |
Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional energy storage system and innovative thermal energy storage system |
title_full |
Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional energy storage system and innovative thermal energy storage system |
title_fullStr |
Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional energy storage system and innovative thermal energy storage system |
title_full_unstemmed |
Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional energy storage system and innovative thermal energy storage system |
title_sort |
comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional energy storage system and innovative thermal energy storage system |
publisher |
Elsevier |
series |
International Journal of Thermofluids |
issn |
2666-2027 |
publishDate |
2021-11-01 |
description |
As policies have been implemented globally to limit the production of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the effects of climate change, the generation of electricity by renewable technologies has started to increase. The development of sustainable energy storage solutions has also become more important. The continued use of conventional chemical batteries presents environmental issues such as heavy metal pollution and the use of unsustainable resources.An environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been conducted to analyse the environmental impact of an innovative Thermal Battery (TB) and was compared with the impact of a Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery (LIPB) using a “cradle-to-gate” approach to establish the system boundaries. The study used the findings from existing literature to determine the environmental impact of the LIPB. The life cycle inventory for the TB was constructed based on a model and available literature. In this regard, the two products were compared on 10 impact categories, and the results indicated that the TB performed better in 8 categories on average. The highest impact observed from the TB was in terrestrial ecotoxicity, where it emitted above 7000 times more than the LIPB, amounting to approximately 0.0153 after normalisation. The highest normalised environmental load in the study was indicated to be in the category of marine ecotoxicity by the LIPB at 0.27, which was significantly higher than any load for the TB. Overall, the results obtained are encouraging for the TB, but it is recommended that a field study is completed to verify the assumptions made in this paper and to achieve a better comparability with studies conducted similarly. |
topic |
Thermal energy storage Lithium iron phosphate battery Life cycle assessment Terrestrial ecotoxicity Environmental impacts |
url |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666202721000549 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT borbalarebekadavid comparativeenvironmentallifecycleassessmentofconventionalenergystoragesystemandinnovativethermalenergystoragesystem AT seanspencer comparativeenvironmentallifecycleassessmentofconventionalenergystoragesystemandinnovativethermalenergystoragesystem AT jeremymiller comparativeenvironmentallifecycleassessmentofconventionalenergystoragesystemandinnovativethermalenergystoragesystem AT sulaimanalmahmoud comparativeenvironmentallifecycleassessmentofconventionalenergystoragesystemandinnovativethermalenergystoragesystem AT hussamjouhara comparativeenvironmentallifecycleassessmentofconventionalenergystoragesystemandinnovativethermalenergystoragesystem |
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1716862074743685120 |