Battery, Nanotechnology partnership launched by EPA to protect environment

March 10, 2010

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a partnership that will focus on bringing manufacturers of various types of lithium-ion batteries together with EPA and university scientists, non-governmental organizations, and other relevant parties, to help the manufacturers make environmentally sound manufacturing and material choices.

This Design for the Environment partnership (DfE) is the first that has addressed an application of nanotechnology, by targeting companies that make lithium-ion batteries with carbon nanotubes. A fact sheet produced by DfE states that when completed, it is expected that the life-cycle assessment results can be used by the lithium-ion battery industry to identify the materials or processes within a product's life cycle that are likely to pose the greatest impacts or potential risks to public health or the environment.

In addition, given the use of nanotechnology in current and future lithium-ion battery products, the life-cycle analysis will also promote nanotechnology innovations in advanced batteries that result in reduced overall environmental emissions, including greenhouse gas emissions.

The goal is to provide companies, by mid-2011, with information on how to improve their extraction, manufacturing and disposal practices.