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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Toxicology, Pollution and the Environment
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1409606
This article is part of the Research Topic Resource Conversion and Safe Disposal of Solid Wastes Containing Heavy Metals View all 3 articles

Scenario based Risk Assessment Study on End-of-Life Electric Vehicle Battery Waste Disposal: An Environmental Perspective

Provisionally accepted
Sayali Apte Sayali Apte 1Ibrahim Mahariq Ibrahim Mahariq 2,3*Preeti Mishra Preeti Mishra 1Vaishnavi Dhok Vaishnavi Dhok 4*
  • 1 Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Symbiosis International University, Pune, Maharashtra, India
  • 2 Gulf University for Science and Technology, Mishref District, Kuwait
  • 3 Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
  • 4 JD College of Engineering & Management, Nagpur, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The overall growth in electrical vehicle production and manufacturing sector has led to continuous increase in volume of electric vehicles on road. Once the batteries used in these vehicles i.e., Lithium-ion batteries reaches its end of life, then arises the question of their disposal. Currently, only 5 percentage of total End of Life (EOL) Lithium ion Batteries (LiB) are recycled using proper reuse /disposal methods and remaining quantum of waste is either exported, recycled illegally or incinerated or landfilled. The present research work focuses on assessing the risk associated with Endof-life (EOL) LiB waste flows and its fate. The study involves a detailed causeconsequence analysis for understanding the various factors leading to undesirable events and therefore undesirable impact on human and environment. A detailed impact assessment is performed using network and matrix method. The quantitative analysis is performed using the responses received from 112 number of respondents to a detailed questionnaire survey prepared using the impact assessment and preliminary analysis. The outcome of the questionnaire survey is also compared with existing literature. Scenario-based risk assessment is performed wherein the effect of different scenarios considering weather condition, soil condition, site selected for LiB disposal, soil type, ground water table are considered. Based on the values of risk parameters achieved, the overall risk associated with disposal of EOL LiBs is quantified through a risk matrix. The results obtained from the study can be used to addresses and mitigate the environmental and human health impact of EOL LiB waste disposal.

    Keywords: Risk Assessment, lithium-ion batteries, end-of-life, electric vehicle, Disposal, landfilling

    Received: 30 Mar 2024; Accepted: 28 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Apte, Mahariq, Mishra and Dhok. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Ibrahim Mahariq, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Mishref District, 32093, Kuwait
    Vaishnavi Dhok, JD College of Engineering & Management, Nagpur, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.