Friedrich B. Jasper

The transition toward a decarbonized energy system requires long‐term energy storage (LTES) solutions capable of complementing hydrogen‐based technologies. This study presents an exploratory life cycle assessment (LCA) of a primary aluminum–air battery (AAB) system as a prospective solid‐state LTES option, benchmarked against gaseous hydrogen (GH ₂ ) with underground storage and liquid hydrogen (LH ₂ ) with cryogenic tank. The AAB is evaluated under current and prospective aluminum production scenarios across different geographic contexts, and is benchmarked against alternatives using identical supply chain and use‐phase assumptions. AAB system achieves round‐trip efficiencies of 29–35%, exceeding GH ₂ and LH ₂ by at least 2% and 10%, respectively. Consequently, GH ₂ outperforms AAB across all categories on a cradle‐to‐use basis only thanks to underground storage, while AAB showing competitive performance it performs better than LH ₂ in global warming potential (GWP ₁₀₀ ) impact category. The conducted uncertainty analysis reveals that AAB might outperform H ₂ in GWP and eutrophication potential (freshwater) under favorable conditions. Overall, the findings highlight trade‐offs realizing climate benefits while mitigating resource and ecosystem impacts. Advancing low‐carbon smelting, material circularity, optimized logistics, and durable low‐impact components will be essential for enabling AAB to serve as a sustainable complement or partial substitute for hydrogen‐based LTES in future low‐carbon energy systems.

This work establishes a comprehensive life cycle inventory for containerized battery storage systems.

A comprehensive review of 205 studies on energy storage sustainability evaluates economic, environmental, and social dimensions, highlights methodological gaps, and provides recommendations to improve future assessments.

Sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) are considered the most promising candidate for electrochemical storage after lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) to meet the globally growing energy storage demand. Assessments to identify environmental hotspots and address them in further development at regular intervals are inevitable to ensure low environmental impact of SIBs in the future. However, the number of studies assessing the environmental impacts of SIBs is limited, and existing studies are mostly based on theoretical models and few limited sources. This study is one of the few to provide life cycle inventory data from actual production processes of SIBs, allowing for hotspot analysis of environmental impacts. A comparative life cycle assessment of two emerging SIB technologies is conducted based on primary laboratory data, focusing on the synthesis of the two cathode active materials (CAMs), sodium vanadium phosphate (NVP/C), and a Prussian white (PW). The results show that the impacts of NVP/C‐based pouch cells are significantly higher than the PW‐based cells in all impact categories due to lower gravimetric energy densities and higher CAM synthesis‐related impacts. To ensure the correct order of magnitude a benchmark NMC‐based LIB is assessed at the same laboratory, showing lower impacts than both SIBs, due to higher gravimetric energy densities.

This work shows why the environmental impact of batteries should always be investigated on an application-specific basis.