Towards Transparent Communication in Prospective Environmental Assessment of Emerging Battery Materials

Main Presenter:    Svenja Weber-Harmann 

Co-Authors:   Nikolas Dilger     Sabrina Zellmer      Christoph Herrmann      Kira Fischer                              

The rapid development of next-generation battery technologies requires assessment approaches that support informed decision-making already in early research and development phases. In the context of the energy transition and increasing regulatory requirements, prospective evaluation of environmental impacts have become a central criterion for guiding technology design and development and avoiding unintended trade-offs. To further improve battery performance while reducing the associated carbon footprint, novel battery technologies such as sodium-ion solid-state batteries (Na-SSB) are being developed as potential advancements beyond conventional lithium-ion technology. However, for emerging battery concepts environmental assessments are challenged by limited data availability, heterogeneous data quality, and high levels of uncertainty, which hinder transparent interpretation and comparability of results.
This study presents a prospective environmental assessment framework for Na-SSB materials that is grounded in a reliability-based evaluation concept. The framework is designed to support transparent communication of environmental assessment results under uncertainty, rather than aiming at precise or deterministic impact quantification. Central to the approach is a structured reliability matrix that classifies input data according to data source, level of validation, and associated uncertainty in reference to the currently established Pedigree matrix. These characteristics are explicitly linked to environmental assessment results, enabling a differentiated interpretation of findings. A visual color scheme is introduced to facilitate the clear reporting of reliability levels and to enhance the comparability of results across different material systems, process routes, and development stages. The framework explicitly accounts for the specific challenges of solid-state battery materials.
By transferring the reliability-based methodology to the use case of Na-SSB materials and benchmarking them against lithium-ion battery materials as a reference, the approach illustrates how comparative, forward-looking environmental assessments can be conducted despite incomplete and evolving data landscapes. The case study demonstrates how uncertainty propagation and data maturity influence the interpretation of early-stage results, shifting the focus from absolute environmental performance towards reliability-informed comparisons.
The results show that the framework enables the transparent identification and communication of dominant uncertainty drivers, critical data gaps, and methodological sensitivities, thereby supporting reliability-aware and comparable interpretation of prospective assessment results.
Overall, the proposed approach contributes to advancing transparency, consistency, and comparability in prospective environmental assessments of emerging battery technologies. It provides a transferable methodological basis for researchers and practitioners to communicate early-stage assessment results in a structured and reliable manner, thereby supporting sustainability-oriented technology development and strategic decision-making in the field of energy storage.

©2026 Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation e.V. | Contact Us | Legal Info

CONTACT US

If you would like to get in touch with us, please feel free to send us a message. Thank you very much in advance.

Sending

Log in with your credentials

or    

Forgot your details?

Create Account