As the clean energy transition unfolds, the use of renewable energy and electric vehicles (EV) has increased rapidly over the past decade and is expected to grow further. Solar and battery demands are expected to reach 29 PWh and 13 PWh by 2050, respectively. The clean energy transition is vital to meet climate goals, but is met with challenges such as future battery waste generation, and the availability and environmental footprint of energy materials. Cadmium-telluride (CdTe) is one of the world's leading thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technologies. CdTe PV relies on tellurium, a scarce metal mainly recovered as a by-product from copper electrorefining anode slimes. Several studies investigated the availability of tellurium and used life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate its environmental impact. However, previous availability studies are static and do not reflect tellurium supply, demand, and price interconnection. Previous LCA studies do not reflect the industrial best practices for tellurium recovery. This study develops a system dynamics model to assess the tellurium availability between 2023 and 2050 under different demand scenarios. All demand scenarios exhibit a tellurium supply gap. The results show that recycling retired solar panels and improving tellurium yield from copper electrorefining are efficient mitigation approaches. An LCA is also conducted to evaluate the environmental impact of tellurium recovery from copper electrorefining based on different production methods and locations. The environmental impact of tellurium varies by production location and method. Tellurium recovery in the USA via pyro-hydrometallurgical treatment of anode slimes reduces the freshwater toxicity and resource depletion of CdTe semiconductors by 44% and 42%, respectively, compared to the worst-case scenario. The results show that previous studies underestimates the environmental impact of tellurium and, as a result, underestimates the freshwater toxicity and abiotic depletion potential of CdTe solar panels by 35% and 50%, respectively. The environmental impact of batteries depends on the source of virgin materials, and the recycled materials content and recovery method. Recycling helps manage future battery waste while providing a domestic supply source. But the environmental impact of recycled materials remains unclear. A comprehensive assessment of the environmental impact of conventional and new recycling methods is needed. The environmental impact of batteries also depends on the production location, the energy source, and the final battery chemistry. In this dissertation, a configurable LCA tool is developed to assess the environmental impact of batteries for different supply chain scenarios. This tool is first used to evaluate and compare three LIB recycling methods: 1) conventional hydrometallurgy (CHR), 2) truncated hydrometallurgy (THR), and 3) pyrometallurgy (PR). The same tool is used to evaluate the effect of recycled content on new batteries. Finally, multiple scenarios are evaluated to assess the environmental effect of reshoring the battery supply chain to the US. The results show that THR reduces the carbon footprint, water consumption, freshwater toxicity, and resource depletion potential of new batteries by 87%, 72%, 50%, and 36%, respectively, compared to CHR and PR. The effect of recycled materials on the environmental impact of new batteries varies by impact category and depends on the recycling method and the source of primary materials being replaced. In a best-case scenario, 100% recycled content can reduce LIB cells' carbon footprint and freshwater toxicity by 50% and 61%, respectively. However, water consumption and scarcity footprint improve only when high-impact virgin materials are replaced with recycled materials recovered via pyrometallurgy. Further analysis shows that offshoring the battery supply chain leads to the highest battery cell environmental footprint. Alternatively, batteries produced in Canada have the lowest impact, driven mainly by a cleaner electricity grid and source of primary materials. The environmental impact of 100% US-made batteries largely depends on the source of primary materials, specifically lithium and nickel. Increasing renewable energy contribution to 1.75 Wp/kWh cell produced can alleviate the high environmental impact of domestic nickel and lithium and reduce the environmental footprint of 100% US-made batteries.
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