The growing demand for batteries to facilitate the transition to electric vehicles comes with its own sustainability challenges. Raw materials extraction, energy use, toxic substances, and waste management and recycling are some of the main environmental aspects to be addressed. To do so effectively, it is useful to consider all these topics across the full value chain of the battery already during its design phase.
To this end, the HighSpin consortium held a workshop to raise awareness for these topics among the members of the consortium. The workshop was moderated by CEA and kicked off with a presentation in November 2022, in which Fabien Perdu and colleagues gave an interesting overview of the eco-design topics relating to batteries. This was followed by a brainstorming session in February 2023 in which project partners identified possible actions in their individual work packages and areas of activity. The project participants considered possibilities to use fewer or less toxic materials, improve ease of disassembly, improve energy efficiency in the production steps, and extend the useful life of the battery. Finally, the ideas were clustered and evaluated. Possibilities for implementation will be reviewed at the project’s General Assembly meetings.