Sustainability Assessment in Post-lithium-Ion Batteries: Challenges in Communication and Interdisciplinary Integration

Post-lithium batteries (PLIB) based on sodium, magnesium and potassium are considered as a potential more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to concerns about environmental impacts, including e.g. carbon footprint, critical material dependency, and social impacts. However, a major challenge in early technology readiness levels (TRLs), here regarding research of PLIB, is to identify most promising and sustainable pathways for potential commercialization. This is a challenging task as there is a high degree of uncertainty in early TRLs due to the lack of robust data.. A key difficulty is defining appropriate sustainability targets—such as environmental, social, and supply chain considerations—and establishing clear criteria for assessment.This challenge is closely linked to the Collingridge dilemma, which highlights the trade-off between flexibility in early development stages and the growing difficulty of steering technology at later stages. Constructive Technology assessment (CTA) offers a possibility to tackle this dilemma by broadening the design phase of new technologies by feedback of technology assessment activities into the construction of technology, here new PLIBs. By nature CTA has a trans and interdisciplinary research orientation which allows to; 1) incorporate processes, methodologies, knowledge, and goal of stakeholders from and across academia as well as actors from outside academia, 2) to create solution-oriented and social robust knowledge which is transferable to scientific and societal practice. Besides clearm proper and transparent way communication strategies and different stages of interdisciplinary integration must be considered in such tasks due to the very different nature of involved stakeholders (sustainability analyst, chemist or engineers)Hereby a conceptual framework is presented that maps methods that can be incorparated into CTA to provide different spheres of information that can support a sustianability by desing approach using quantitative and qualitative appraoches. The talk will provide an overview of methodological challenges for sustainability assessment (Data, communication, integration) that arise from early to high technology development levels of post-lithium battery research in particular Al, Na and Mg based chemistries in frame of CTA. Furthermore, the presented approach can serve as a blueprint for various battery systems or even other technologies. It has to be mentioned that simplifications, uncertainties and required assumptions allow it only to derive general tendencies related to different PLIB batteries.