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Life Cycle Analysis of Lead Acid Battery used in Electric Vehicles (3 Wheeler) in
Bangladesh

Conference Paper · December 2018

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Pabna University of Science and Technology Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology
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 International Conference on Mechanical, Industrial and Energy Engineering 2018
23-24 December, 2018, Khulna, BANGLADESH

ICMIEE18-332
Life Cycle Analysis of Lead Acid Battery used in Electric Vehicles (3 Wheeler) in Bangladesh
Md. Raquibul Hasan1,*, Dr. Nirendra Nath Mustafi2
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Pabna University of Science & Technology, PUST-6600, BANGLADESH
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, RUET-6204, BANGLADESH

ABSTRACT
Lead acid batteries have been rapidly used in electric vehicles (3 wheeler) in Bangladesh with typical environmental
problems such as consumption of resources and heavy metal pollution. Thus to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the
environmental impact of the battery to reduce environmental pollution is urgent. In this paper a life cycle analysis conducted
by SimaPro software is applied to analyze and compare the environmental impact of lead acid battery (LAB) within the
system boundary of "cradle-to gate". The results showed that the overall impact of LAB production on environment is the
smallest. The key substances that causes the environmental impact of LAB is production stage (12.56 %) & use stage of
(85.56 %) the batteries. This research work will provide a quantitative assessments of the environmental impact of battery
which will be very important to take necessary prevention measures during disposals. This can obviously create scopes of
further research in this area.

Keywords: Lead acid battery (LAB), Electric vehicle, Life cycle analysis (LCA), SimaPro 8.5, Environmental impact

1. Introduction impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life

Mass-production of battery electric vehicles were including raw material, production process, packaging,
introduced to the global market to reduce transport- energy and some other human activity, including the
related oil dependency, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, collection of raw material, production, transportation,
and urban air pollution [1]. Thus the three wheeler consumption, final disposal [5]. At present, LCA has
electric vehicles (Easy bikes) have made a major leap in been widely used in different areas.
the last few years in Bangladesh [2]. As a result, lead-
acid battery (LAB) industry has stimulated the rapid The LCA conducted with a listing of the available
growth of Bangladesh's for more than a decade. Easy- technologies for lead-acid battery in the SimaPro
bikes are now plying on road with parking number software tool. This can obviously create scopes of
given from city corporations, municipalities and union further research on this area.
councils.
2. Lead Acid Battery
Electric bikes uses lead-acid batteries as the power Lead acid batteries are the cheapest way to store energy.
source, which emit lead into the environment through its The construction of lead acid battery has two electrode
production, uses and recycling process. These batteries one is lead (Pb) and other is lead oxide (PbO 2). These
thus contaminates soil, air and water with their toxic two electrodes are immersed in the solution of water
substances, posing long-term negative impacts on the and sulfuric acid (H2SO4). When battery is generating
environment and human health [3]. energy, the lead combines with the sulphuric acid to
create lead sulphate (PbSO4), and the lead oxide
The lead acid battery contains 70% lead (lead and lead combines with hydrogen and sulphuric acid to create
oxide), 20% sulfuric acid and 10% plastic materials. In lead sulphate and water (H2O) [5]. As the battery is
recycling process batteries are broken, cover of batteries getting discharged lead sulfate build up on the electrode
is removed and acid is drained out on adjacent land. Top and the water build up in the sulfuric acid solution.
portion is hammered for shredding of plastic and the When the battery is charged the process reversed and
lead posts fixed in the top are released [4]. Open pit lead sulfate combine with water to build lead and lead
smelting is done at high temperature to recover lead oxide on the electrode.
from lead oxide, which is known as smelting. Smelting Charging: 2PbSO4 + 2H2O → PbO2 + Pb + H2SO4
process requires small amount of coal to facilitate the Discharging: PbO2 + Pb + H2SO4→ 2PbSO4 + 2H2O
reaction of lead burning. During this process lead dust
and toxic gases released which pollutes the environment. There are two types of lead acid batteries based on their
construction method- flooded and sealed. In flooded
In order to find the negative impact of these batteries lead acid battery the electrode is immersed in electrolyte
used in electric vehicles, a life cycle assessment (LCA) and regular refilling of water is required for proper
of lead-acid battery has been performed to explore the working. While in sealed lead acid battery the
environmental aspects of the battery production, use and electrolyte is immobilized.
recycling process. Life cycle assessment is a technique
to analyze and evaluate resources and environmental

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +88-01717621147

E-mail addresses: raquibulh@yahoo.com
3. Methodology 3.3 Evaluation method
Environmental impact assessment of LAB is carried out This study uses Eco-indicator 99 (H) model for life
following the LCA procedure and Eco-indicator 99 (H) cycle impact assessment (LCIA) to perform all analyses.
(SimaPro 8.5) model analysis is performed. The The Eco-indicator 99 model is the most widely used
environmental impact categories are selected according model in LCA and the most reliable intermediate point
to model analysis. The processes and substances are impact assessment method [6, 7]. The accuracy of the
identified according to overall environmental impact. output results can be ensured from the data acquisition
The structure framework of this paper is shown in Fig.1. and model selection. The Eco-indicator 99 is one of the
most widely used and the most reliable environmental
impact assessment models in the world. It includes 18
midpoint environmental impact categories, i.e. climate
change, ozone depletion, human toxicity, photochemical
oxidant formation, particulate matter formation,
ionizing radiation, terrestrial acidification, freshwater
eutrophication, marine eutrophication, terrestrial
ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity,
agricultural land occupation, urban land occupation,
natural land transformation, water depletion, metal
depletion and fossil depletion [8].

3.4 Life cycle inventory construction

The focus of this LCA study is to evaluate the
Fig.1 Structure framework of LCA environmental performance of the lead-acid battery. The
LCI data is basically a function of the quantity and type
3.1 Functional Unit of energy consumed to operate the batteries. To quantify
All the raw material input, energy consumption, waste the data on amount of energy consumed, it is necessary
gas and waste water emission in the battery production to know the battery characteristic data and the
process are calculated on the basis of the functional unit. application specific input data [9].
3.2 System Boundary 4 Stages of LCA
The battery system boundary is set to "cradle-to-gate" in The lifecycle of a LAB can be divided into three main
Fig.2. It considers the battery production stage and the stages: production, use and disposal.
obtain stage of raw materials with the battery use stage
and waste disposal stage. The system boundary of 4.1 Production stage
battery does not involve the problems of product quality Data related to energy consumption, input of raw
allocation. Due to different types of raw materials used materials and waste water and gas emissions of LAB is
in the battery production process, the modes of transport from a local battery manufacturer. Based on the
are numerous. Therefore, the environment impact of literature reviews [10], this paper assumes that the
raw materials transport is not taken into account. number of LAB cycle is 350. LAB production process
life cycle is shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Life cycle inventory (LCI) of lead acid battery

(LAB) production process
Category Name 1 kWh Unit Data
battery Sources
production
Battery plate Refined 10.98 kg Field
manufacturing lead survey
process
Additive 0.16 kg Field
survey
Calcium 7 × 10-3 kg Field
aluminum survey
alloy
Tin 3.9 × 10-2 kg Field
survey
Deionized 3.17 kg Field
water survey
Sulfuric 0.64 kg Field
acid survey
Process of Partition 1.68 kg Field
Fig. 2 System boundary of Batteries for LCA Assembly survey

ICMIEE18-332- 2
Acid filling Sulfuric 4.16 kg Field Table 3 Energy and material inputs for Lead-Acid
process acid survey Battery disposal
Injection Polypropy 1.73 kg Field Products Materials/Assemblies/Process Quantity Unit
molding lene survey
Lead Acid Battery Assembly 1 P
process
Energy Electricity 7.96 kW Field Transport, light commercial 0.2 tkm
consumption h survey truck, diesel
Steam 3.14 kg Field powered/tkm/RNA
survey Disposal Transport, combination truck, 0.2 tkm
of short-haul, diesel
4. 2 Use Stage Battery powered/tkm/RNA
Firstly, the use of battery & use of package was Municipal Waste 50%
determined. In the use phase a battery needed to charge Disassembly of Battery 49%
& change the electrolyte. Then, the data for type of Reuse of Container & Vent 1%
energy consumed, i.e., the electricity generation (power Plug
grid) mix and life cycle environmental impacts
associated with it was obtained from Ecoinvent 2.2 5 Life cycle analysis of a Lead-Acid Battery:
database. The type of electricity used to charge and Total life cycle of a battery means the total view of
discharge the batteries plays a significant role in the production, use, and disposal. In a LC of Battery, for its
overall inventory of battery LCA studies. As the focus charging it requires electricity. Also for its proper
of the study is the Bangladesh distribution grid, the functioning it requires to change its electrolyte. For
Bangladesh national electricity mix at distribution grid disposal state, it is considered that battery plates & other
level was assumed in the analysis. LAB use stage is plastic component are recycled. Battery plates are go
shown in Table 2. through the smelting process which facilitates the air
emission. For the context of Bangladesh, the entire
Table 2 Energy and material inputs for Lead-Acid lifecycle of battery has negative impact. Fig. 4 shows
Battery use phase the tree of Battery Life Cycle, Fig. 5 represents the
Materials/Assembli Classification/ Characterization of the LCA,
Products Quantity Unit
es/Process Normalization/ Weighing step on Fig. 7, Damage
Distilled Water assessment step on Fig. 8 and finally the total
1 P
Production contribution of each life stage to the total lifecycle
Electricity, aggregated in the main impact categories, Fig. 9 and
Use of A medium voltage Table 4.
Battery {BD}| market for 2.8 kWh
electricity, medium
voltage | APOS, U
Municipal Waste

4.3 Disposal phase

The disposal stage comprises the processes that
products go through after their use is completed and are
not providing the service for which they were devised.
Whether due to malfunctioning or substitution, every
product comes to a point when it has to be disposed of.
A description hereafter of some possible ways to
dispose of an end-life of Battery [11].

Data concerning the recycling processes is estimated

based on an assumption regarding how much
environmental burden can be avoided in total. Since the
cell consists mainly of electrolyte (46%) and sealing
gasket (15%), both assumed to be incinerated, only 20%
of the total cell weight will be recycled as material
(polypropylene). The environmental impacts of lead-
acid battery recycling are calculated as the sum of
environmental impacts from the transportation and
involved recycling processes and treatment processes.
LAB disposal stage is shown in Table 2. Fig. 3 Battery LCA network tree with a 5% cut-off

ICMIEE18-332- 3
Fig. 4 LCA of a battery - Characterization Step
Fig. 7 LCA of a battery – Single Score

Table 4 Values of the contribution of each life stage in

the total lifecycle of one battery
Damage Human Ecosystem Resou Total
category Health Quality rces (kPt)
Lead Acid
Battery 0.561 0.036 0.151 0.151
Assembly

Electricity 0.370 0.032 0.833 0.833

Disposal
0.007 0.022 0.000 0.000
of Battery

Use of A
0.016 0.001 0.035 0.035
Battery
Fig. 5 LCA of a battery – Damage Assessment
Use of
0.005 0.001 0.010 0.010
Packaging

0.959 0.092 1.028 2.079

Total
(34 %) (3.72 %) (62 %) (100 %)

6 Results
The previous figures and tables present the lifecycle
ecopoints of the battery which amount to 2.097 kPt,
where:
a. The production accounts for 0.151 kPt, i.e.
70% of the total impact;
b. The Electricity is responsible for 0.833 Pt,
or 25% of the total environmental impact;

The categories with the highest contribution for the total

lifecycle impact is Resources with a 62.27% input,
followed by Human Health with 34%, Ecosystem
Quality has a small contribution of 3.72%. In terms of
Fig. 6 LCA of a battery – Weighing Step

ICMIEE18-332- 4
 the intermediary indicators, Fossil fuel have the highest Issues Internatio., London: McGraw-Hill
impact in this parameter. Education – Europe, (1993)
Using Eco-indicator 99 model, use stage is identified as [12] Norris, G., Integrating life cycle cost analysis
the key process with the greatest impact on the and LCA. The International Journal of Life
environment (Fig. 7), which occupies 85.56% of the Cycle Assessment, 6(2), PP 118-120, (2001).
overall environmental impact load. In the 5 main [13] Haefliger P, Mathieu-Nolf M, Mass lead
environmental impact categories, the battery intoxication from informal used lead-acid
manufacturing process proportion of the environmental battery recycling in Dakar, Senegal,
impact load 12.56 % (Fig. 7). Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol.
117(10), PP 1535-1540, (2009).
7 Conclusions [14] Konstantinos N. Genikomsakis, A Life Cycle
With the help of LCA, the environmental impact of Assessment of a Li-ion urban electric vehicle
LAB in the stage of "cradle-to-gate" is analyzed and battery, EVS27 International Battery, Hybrid
compared. The processes and the substances of and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Symposium,
environmental impact were identified by the Eco- Barcelona, Spain, November 17-20, (2013)
indicator 99 method. The results show that LAB use [15] Laiguo Chen, Zhencheng Xu, Lead exposure
phase has the greatest environmental impact. These assessment from study near a lead-acid battery
findings are important references for achieving factory in China, Science of the Total
sustainable development in the Electric vehicle using Environment Vol. 429, PP 191–198, (2012)
phase in Bangladesh.

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