Graphite for lithium-ion batteries: mineral analysis and global Material Flow Analysis

Genovesi, Sofia (2022) Graphite for lithium-ion batteries: mineral analysis and global Material Flow Analysis. [Laurea magistrale], Università di Bologna, Corso di Studio in Geologia e territorio [LM-DM270]
Documenti full-text disponibili:
[img] Documento PDF (Thesis)
Disponibile con Licenza: Creative Commons: Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Download (8MB)

Abstract

Graphite is a mineral commodity used as anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), and its global demand is doomed to increase significantly in the future due to the forecasted global market demand of electric vehicles. Currently, the graphite used to produce LIBs is a mix of synthetic and natural graphite. The first one is produced by the crystallization of petroleum by-products and the second comes from mining, which causes threats related to pollution, social acceptance, and health. This MSc work has the objective of determining compositional and textural characteristics of natural, synthetic, and recycled graphite by using SEM-EDS, XRF, XRD, and TEM analytical techniques and couple these data with dynamic Material Flow Analysis (MFA) models, which have the objective of predicting the future global use of graphite in order to test the hypothesis that natural graphite will no longer be used in the LIB market globally. The mineral analyses reveal that the synthetic graphite samples contain less impurities than the natural graphite, which has a rolled internal structure similar to the recycled one. However, recycled graphite shows fractures and discontinuities of the graphene layers caused by the recycling process, but its rolled internal structure can help the Li-ions’ migration through the fractures. Three dynamic MFA studies have been conducted to test distinct scenarios that include graphite recycling in the period 2022-2050 and it emerges that - irrespective of any considered scenario - there will be an increase of synthetic graphite demand, caused by the limited stocks of battery scrap available. Hence, I conclude that both natural and recycled graphite is doomed to be used in the LIB market in the future, at least until the year 2050 when the stock of recycled graphite production will be enough to supersede natural graphite. In addition, some new improvement in the dismantling and recycling processes are necessary to improve the quality of recycled graphite.

Abstract
Tipologia del documento
Tesi di laurea (Laurea magistrale)
Autore della tesi
Genovesi, Sofia
Relatore della tesi
Correlatore della tesi
Scuola
Corso di studio
Indirizzo
CURRICULUM C: RAW MATERIALS EXPLORATION AND SUSTAINABILITY
Ordinamento Cds
DM270
Parole chiave
Graphite,Graphite recycling,Material Flow Analysis,Anode materials,Li-ion battery,Electric vehicles
Data di discussione della Tesi
23 Maggio 2022
URI

Altri metadati

Statistica sui download

Gestione del documento: Visualizza il documento

^