A novel life cycle assessment of lithium-thionyl chloride batteries in smart gas meters: Carbon, toxicity, and energy footprint

The rapid deployment of smart gas meters has increased reliance on lithium-thionyl chloride (LTC) batteries, serving as the dominant power source due to their long service life and operational reliability. Despite their widespread use, their life cycle environmental burdens have received less attention. This study addresses this research gap by providing the life cycle assessment (LCA) of LTC batteries used in smart gas meters, based on 500,000 D-size cells over a 30-year service life. The results demonstrated a total carbon footprint of 1,434,654 kg CO2-eq (28.7 kg CO2-eq kg-1 battery) using the ReCiPe method, with electricity consumption and heavy fuel oil contributing 48.56% and 22.68% of total global warming potential (GWP), respectively. The midpoint impacts identified marine ecotoxicity (45.3%) and freshwater ecotoxicity (25.8%) as dominant impact categories, mostly driven by nickel (up to 59% contribution). Endpoint results illustrated damages of 5.37 disability-adjusted life years (DALY) to human health, 0.00876 species·yr to ecosystems, and 178,326 USD in resource scarcity. The energy demand of LTC battery manufacturing was strongly fossil-based, with 92.6% supplied from non-renewable energy sources. Scenario analysis highlighted that switching to wind or solar energy can decrease GWP by ∼ 46%, while considering the transportation of 10 t.km, enhanced GWP by 31.3% and endpoint damages by > 29.6%. Monte Carlo analysis based on 10,000 runs confirmed data robustness with a coefficient of variation of less than 15% for most impact categories. The findings provide a transparent and application-specific LCA framework for LTC batteries and highlight key intervention points to decrease environmental burdens associated with large-scale smart gas meter deployment.