Battery, Nanotechnology Partnership Launched by EPA to Protect EnvironmentSource: The Bureau of National Affairs' Daily Environment Report
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 "[W]hen 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." Clive Davies, chief of EPA's DfE Branch, says the goal is to provide companies, by mid-2011, with information on how to improve their extraction, manufacturing and disposal practices. The article can be viewed online at the link below. |