Direct emissions to air, water and soil from a battery gigafactory

In this study we investigate the direct emissions of a state-of-the-art battery gigafactory in Germany. We show that in a typical, state-of-the-art battery gigafactory large amounts of factory internal, process specific emissions are generated, namely 80 t/a of dusts, 510–850 t/a of gases and 2700 t/a of sludges. This are about 2.7% of the material overall used. We show that the most environmental and health critical process emissions are nickel-manganese-cobalt dust, copper dust and n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone gas. The emissions to the environment depend on the subsequent, location specific abatement system. By state-of-the-art abatement systems most of these substances can be removed, resulting in emissions of 0.087 kg/a nickel-manganese-cobalt, 0.006 kg/a copper and 196 kg/a n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone via air. We also show that in Germany, the legal limits for air emissions fall far short of the technical possibilities, which can result in the surrounding area being heavily loaded with carcinogenic nickel dusts.