Chapter 8. Lifecycle and sustainability

International audienceThe concept of sustainability was developed in order to improve the present human living standards while maintaining the availability of the natural resources for future generations. According to this definition, technological development is a way to improve the sustainability, because it enables to meet human needs by transforming natural resources into useful products. By 2050, the urban world population is expected to approximately double to an estimated 6.4 billion2 and we are aware that the Earth’s natural resources are already limited. In this context, less impacting and more efficient industrial processes’ design represents a real challenge for engineers. From now on, the impacts of new technologies have to be assessed in detail, all along their life cycle, even before their massive industrial deployment.We should be sure that the generated impacts are actually counterbalanced by the improvement of the living standards on Earth. In this chapter, we will consider new technologies related to the development and treatment of lithium batteries. In the first part, we will demonstrate how existing studiesare already taking into account environmental impacts assessment and we will particularly emphasize the main assumptions realized using life cycle assessment (LCA) approaches. In the second part, we will focus on the end-of-life (EOL) of lithium batteries to demonstrate that the entire value chain has to be considered while arbitrating on the acceptability or not of a design decision from an environmental perspective.Les batteries de type lithium connaissent et vont connaitre un essor considérable compte tenu d'une part de leurs bonnes performances et d'autre part d'une demande sans cesse croissante d'énergie notamment pour les applications transports. Cet accroissement entraîne une consommation accrue de matières premières et exige, dès aujourd'hui, de penser « cycle de vie » et « développement durable » afin de préserver et de pérenniser les ressources naturelles. Ce chapitre décrit dans un premier temps la méthodologie de l'« analyse du cycle de vie » appliquée aux batteries au lithium à partir de l'analyse de travaux publiés dans la littérature. En particulier les points clefs de ces études sont soulignés et des améliorations indispensables dans l'application de la méthode sont proposées. Dans un deuxième temps, le chapitre décrit un rapide état de l'art du recyclage et pointe la nécessité d'intégrer et de modéliser tout le cycle de vie des batteries depuis l'extraction des ressource primaires jusqu'à la fin de vie

Photocatalytic hydrogen production for PEMFC supply: A new issue

AIR:EAU+EPUPhotocatalysis was used to produce hydrogen via alcohol dehydrogenation with a Pt/TiO2 catalyst. An experiment of coupling was realized between a photocatalytic hydrogen production reactor and an air-breathing PEM fuel cell. The photocatalytic hydrogen consumption rate achieved an optimum value for a loading of 1 wt% of platinum. Three different alcohols were compared. Their hydrogen production efficiency and the maximum current for the PEM fuel cell were compared and were ranged as: methanol >= ethanol > 2-propanol. The photocatalytic production was successfully used to feed the PEM fuel cell and reached a current of 0.202 A corresponding to a current density of 8.1 mA cm(-2). No poisoning effect occurred for 100 h of working. Copyright (C) 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Photocatalysis and PEMFC: From hydrogen production to its conversion into electricity

Internationa

From solar photocatalysis to fuel-cell: A hydrogen supply chain

SSCI-VIDE+ECI2D+EPUInternational audienceSolar conversio

Solar photocatalysis to fuel cell for energy production

International @ ECI2D+EPUInternational audienceNon

PEMFC directly fed with hydrogen produced from photocatalytic alcohol dehydrogenation

International audienc

PEMFC directly fed with hydrogen produced from photocatalytic alcohol dehydrogenation

International audienc

Removal of copper, zinc and nickel present in natural water containing Ca2+ and ions by electrocoagulation

International audienc

Evaluation of acoustic emission as a suitable tool for aging characterization of LiAl/LiMnO2 cell

International audienc

First results on PEMFC diagnosis by electrochemical noise

This paper evaluates electrochemical noise (EN) technique as a possible tool for the diagnosis of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) during operation. EN was employed to survey PEM single cell under various operating conditions at different humidification levels so as to focus on flooding or drying tendencies. Data was investigated in the frequency domain by means of power spectrum densities that showed to be sensitive to changes in the PEMFC operating conditions. EN seems an interesting way for an innovative and non-invasive on-line diagnosis tool. Keywords: PEMFC, Electrochemical noise, PSD, Diagnosi