Batteries for the future - environmental inpact
One of the most important decisions facing designers of plug-in electric or hybrid vehicles is related to battery choice. Now, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have used a life cycle analysis to examine three vehicle battery types to determine which does the best job of powering the vehicle while causing the least amount of environmental impact during its production .... The researchers were surprised to find that except for ozone depletion potential, the NiMH battery performed significantly worse than the two Li-ion batteries for all impact categories. The researchers attributed this difference to the greater use phase efficiency of Li-ion relative to NiMH, and the fact that each kilogram of Li-ion battery is expected to store between 2 to 3 times more energy than the other battery types over the course of its lifetime. ... Batteries for the future