Cleaner Energy Storage: Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Assessment of Aluminum-Ion Batteries With an Aqueous Electrolyte

In the context of growing demand on energy storage, exploring the holistic sustainability of technologies is key to future-proofing our development. In this paper, a cradle-to-gate Lifecycle assessment of aqueous electrolyte aluminium-ion (Al-ion) batteries has been performed. Due to their reported characteristics of high power (circa 30 W kg-1 active material) and low energy density (circa 15 Wh kg-1 active material), these results were compared with supercapacitors (per kW). Initial findings suggest these aluminium-ion cells have fewer environmental impacts than commercial supercapacitors, hence offer a more environmentally sensitive energy storage technology solution. Al-ion batteries are in their early development, and this result shows a strong argument for continuing research into this technology alongside other emerging energy storage systems.