Toxicity and Ecotoxicity Assessment of Batteries

About the Project

Are you a big picture thinker, concerned about sustainability and impacts on both human health and the environment? Would you like to explore how to make safer and more sustainable batteries, by identifying the most hazardous components and suggesting alternatives? Would you like to work as part of a multidisciplinary team working towards a sustainable future? Maybe a PhD in the Energy Materials Group at the University of Birmingham is for you!

Current and next generation batteries, including lithium-ion and sodium-ion, contain a wide range of chemicals, some of which are known to be highly toxic. Battery manufacturers are at the threshold of producing gigatons of batteries for transport and energy markets around the world, therefore the chemicals they contain pose great risks to the environment, should they be released through battery fires or mechanical recycling processes. In addition, occupational workers in this industry could be exposed to these chemicals during the production and end of life processing of batteries. The environmental, economic and social impacts of this global expansion are significant and need to be assessed, so that we do not trade one environmental disaster (climate change) for another (rising toxicity).

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool widely used by engineers to determine environmental impacts and these studies consider toxicity to both humans and ecosystems within freshwater, terrestrial and marine environments. However, as the toxicity data of many of the compounds within batteries is limited, the LCA results may be inaccurate and are likely to be underestimates. The EU has therefore defined the Safe and Sustainable by Design framework, which aims to combine toxicological risk assessment approaches with LCA methods, in order to determine the suitability of alternative chemicals for industrial use. The material properties of both alternative and incumbent chemicals are also considered, ensuring that replacements provide equivalent or better functionality in their intended use.

This PhD project aims to use the JCR’s Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Framework methodologies, which include a range of toxicological datasets and modelling techniques, to explore the toxic effects of commercially relevant battery chemicals on living organisms. The main goals are:

1. Identify a selection of battery-related compounds currently in use in commercial production, for which ecotoxicity is unknown or only partially known.
2. Use state-of-the-art toxicological techniques, including New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), read-across and QSARs, to get a more accurate assessment of ecotoxicity for each compound.
3. Following the LCA methods for determining human toxicity and ecotoxicity factors, calculate a more accurate range for these factors for each compound, including uncertainty estimates.
4. Perform an updated LCA for a commercial battery, using the newly determined human toxicity and ecotoxicity factors, using sensitivity analysis to consider the impacts from the lower and higher extremes of the determined range.

This PhD will suit an environmental chemist or toxicologist with modelling experience. You do not need to have experience of either LCA methods or the SSbD framework, but it will be an advantage.

This PhD studentship is under the supervision of Dr Jacqueline S. Edge and based in the School of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham.

Funding Notes

Please note this project is open to UK applicants only. Candidates must have at least a 2(1) in an Engineering or Scientific discipline or a 2(2) plus MSc or equivalent. The successful applicant will receive a tax-free stipend of £20,780 per year; tuition fees are covered. To apply, please first send a CV and cover letter summarising your research interests and suitability for the position to j.s.edge@bham.ac.uk and feel free to get in touch with any queries in advance.