Development and Validation of Scalable Energy Models for Battery Cell Production Processes

Battery cell production is characterized by energy-intensive processes that contribute significantly to the overall environmental impact of the battery life cycle. Energy demand values reported in the literature vary widely, mainly due to different assumptions and scales considered. In addition, detailed process and material information is often missing. This lack of transparency hinders the comparison of different production strategies (e.g., scales, technologies) and product characteristics (e.g., battery types and sizes, materials). To provide a common basis for calculating the energy demand in battery cell production, this work presents process-specific energy models for electrode production, cell assembly, conditioning, and dry room. Factors related to material flow, production scale, and electrode structure are also considered in the modeling approach. The most relevant models are validated with data from literature and experiments on a pilot-line scale. Further results include a sensitivity analysis to investigate the effects of process parameters on process-specific and total energy demand. Moreover, the effects of increasing equipment capacity and production scale on energy demand are investigated. The results agree with ranges reported in the literature and demonstrate the methodology's capability to calculate the energy demand of different processes, considering real machine specifications as well as production and product characteristics.