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By the means of life cycle assessment (LCA), the ecological impact of recycling and reuse of materials of three battery technologies was analyzed: lead acid, lithium-ion and vanadium redox flow. Reuse of materials is considered through a cradle to cradle method, meaning the materials which can be reused count as a credit in the LCA. It is shown that the recycling and reuse by a good integrated recycling process lower the ecological impact by up to 49%. Some materials are highly influential. By substitution of these, the ecological impact can be lowered significantly.
Unterreiner et al. (Tue,) studied this question.