Abstracts of LCI’s

Life Cycle Assessment for Vanadium Pentoxide (V2O5) from Secondary Resources

The first part of this study provides general information about vanadium production. The reserves, production volumes and uses are described. The chapter also provides an overview of the major companies in the market. The environmental impacts of vanadium pentoxide production from secondary resources are investigated in the second part, from cradle to gate, in a life cycle assessment (LCA). The first case study is based on the detailed information of one producer, which has been provided in a questionnaire. The production process uses granulate from an oil power plant, which contains about 10% vanadium. The second inventory is based on the stoichiometric calculation for chemicals used in the production process and the assumption of the electricity use, based on thermodynamic calculation. The inventory is based on the type of processing used at a power plant in Japan, where e.g. N, S and V2O5 are recovered from boiler soot (also from an oil feed power plant). About 24 to 43MJ-eq of non-renewable energy resources are used to produce one kilogram of vanadium pentoxide. Major energy uses in the life cycle arise due to the direct demand during processing and the production of required chemicals. The environmental impacts for vanadium pentoxide may vary considerably depending on the type of raw material and the type of process used. The emission patterns are influenced by the impurities of the raw material and the chemicals used. The results of the inventory are meant to be used in LCA studies of technical products, such as batteries, where vanadium pentoxide is one of the required materials. Due to the large differences and the small database, it was not possible to calculate an average inventory for all production sites. Thus, the use of the results of the more reliable first case study is recommended. Results from the second case study, with higher environmental impacts, should be considered in a sensitivity analysis (Order and further information).

The environmental consultancy ESU-services has investigated the environmental impacts of lithium production in a life cycle assessment (LCA) study. The first part of this study gives general information for lithium production. The resources, production and uses are described. The chapter also provides an overview of the major companies in the market. The environmental impacts of lithium production are investigated in the second part from cradle to gate in a life cycle assessment (LCA). The inventory is split up into four main stages according to the intermediate products of lithium processing: concentration of lithium brine in South America, production of lithium carbonate, lithium chloride and metallic lithium. Additionally, water pumps and the production of potassium chloride are investigated for the inventory. Internal data for the environmental impacts of production processes of the two major producers of lithium were not available. Thus, the study uses mainly published information. Over 700MJ-eq of different energy resources are used to produce one kilogram of lithium. The environmental impacts for the pre-products lithium carbonate and lithium chloride are much lower than for the metallic lithium. The mining of lithium in South American deserts could also have important local effects on the groundwater level that cannot be accounted for with the method LCA and its “global view”. The results of the inventory are meant to be used in LCA studies of technical products, such as batteries, were lithium or lithium compounds are one of the necessary materials.

We do not sell these LCI data anymore, because more recent inventory data are available with ecoinvent data v2.0.