Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is becoming more important as we move towards a circular approach for lithium batteries and at the same time we drive down the overall impact that battery manufacturing, use and end of life has on the planet.
Needs review: this glossary currently only covers terms through “G” (4R’s through Greenhouse Gas Emissions) despite the stated aim of an A-Z list. Completing it needs a deliberate pass to pick the remaining standard LCA terms (e.g. functional unit, system boundary, cradle-to-gate/cradle-to-grave, PEF, ISO 14040/14044) and write proper entries with sourcing, rather than a partial fill.
The objective of this page is to list the terms from A to Z.
See also the companion Cell Definitions & Glossary and Pack Definitions & Glossary pages.
4R’s – Repair, Reman, Repurpose, Recycle
Battery Passport – part of the new EU Battery Regulation is a requirement for a Battery Passport. See Battery Sustainability for the 2027 compliance deadline and what the Passport records.
Carbon Footprint – a measure of the direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with all activities in the product’s life cycle. See also our post on Aluminium’s Role in the Decarbonization of Batteries.
Circularity – keeping materials and products such as cells, modules and packs in use for as long as possible, through repair, reuse and recycling, instead of extracting new raw materials and discarding batteries at end of life. The 4R’s above are one practical expression of this. For a fuller treatment of the concept, see the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Energy Required to Make a Cell – cell manufacturing process requires ~50kWh/kWh when produced at GWh/year scale. Note that this number does not include the energy required to mine, refine or process the raw materials before they go into the cell manufacturing plant.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions – gases such as CO2, methane and various fluorinated compounds that trap heat in the atmosphere and drive climate change. Battery LCAs typically report emissions in CO2-equivalent (CO2e) terms so that different gases can be compared and summed on a common basis. See the GHG Protocol for the standard accounting methodology used across industry.