This deliverable presents the life cycle environmental impact assessment associated with the production process of cathodic and anodic materials for electrochemical sodium-ion storage systems.

On cathode side, the active material Na_0.66MnO₂ was studied, comparing the environmental impacts associated with two different synthesis paths and different precursors, while for the anode, the anodic material consisting of negative active material active, binder and other additives added to obtain better electrochemical performance was considered.

The environmental assessment results allow to give some indications for the environmental improvement of processes from an eco-design perspective, in particular:

• the energy necessary to the production of active materials (cathodic and anodic) on a laboratory scale has a strong contribution to all examined indicators: energy consumption is an aspect to be paid attention within an eco-design perspective on industrial scale;
• for the active cathodic material, during sol-gel synthesis, citric acid has a strong influence in numerous impact categories: the type of gelling agent and/or the amount used are aspects to keep in mind in an eco-design perspective on an industrial scale;
• concerning the anode, the environmental impacts results associated with the Sn-NC technology, considering two different binders, indicate that the Sn-NC-PVDF anode is the one with best environmental performance: from an energy system decarbonization perspective, the Sn-NC-PVDF anode could be the most promising technology;
• regarding the choice of binder and solvent, the CMC-water combination is responsible for a significantly lower impact than the PVDF-acetone combination on all investigated categories.Considering the same electrochemical performance, eco-oriented design should favor the use of CMC and water;
• in the development of Sn-based anodes, a significant contribution to improving environmental performance could be obtained from an eco-oriented choice of solvent.

Finally, the CLCC indicator shows that for both materials (cathodic and anodic), the use of critical materials is very low for all alternatives considered. This shows that this Na-ion electrode materials are not a limiting factor at a large-scale production.

The Report is available on the Italian site