Integration of safety and sustainability criteria into early design stages of battery cell manufacturing machinery

There is currently a lack of guidance on implementing safety and sustainability at early design stages of battery cell manufacturing machinery. In this work, key European regulatory requirements for battery manufacturing and relevant Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) approaches to lithium-ion battery (LIB) cell production and machinery were explored. Considering peer-reviewed publications and European projects, it was found that the existing literature on the implementation of the SSbD criteria in battery production is still scarce, particularly concerning machinery design. In our paper, data on the current design principles were collected from two battery machinery manufacturers covering, for the first time, the main processes for LIB electrode production (mixing, coating, drying and calendaring), and key areas to formulate SSbD practice guidelines were identified. The origin, hazards and criticality of materials, and the possibility of being renewable or recycled are crucial in terms of raw materials selection. For the manufacturing stage it is recommended minimizing the number of production processes, energy consumption and waste generation, using renewable energy sources, and implementing easy assembly processes and automation. Considering a modular design and the traceability of the machinery components will facilitate maintenance during the use stage, adaptation to new user requirements and disassembly and recycling at the End-of-life.