For a greener carbon footprint

For more sustainability: The aim of the team of researchers led by project coordinator Jens Matthies Wrogemann is to create a more environmentally friendly lifecycle for batteries - from the selection of resources and their transportation to production, disposal and recycling. WWU - MünsterView The Federal Statistics Office has made an exact tally: in 2019, 83.7 million lithium-ion batteries were sold in Germany. The carbon footprint they create is currently significant, especially in their production. Because batteries play a key role in the successful implementation of the energy transformation - and in the associated increase in electromobility - the aim is for them to become "greener? in future. In an interdisciplinary joint project entitled "Green Electrochemical Energy Storage? ("GrEEn? for short), the MEET Battery Research Centre at the University of Münster - in collaboration with the University's Faculty of Biology, the Jülich Research Centre's Helmholtz Institute in Münster, and RWTH University in Aachen - is engaged on a research programme to develop a more sustainable lifecycle for batteries. "Besides the key requirements for batteries - performance, safety, energy, lifetime and costs - our aim is to increase sustainability in the value chain,' explains Jens Matthies Wrogemann, the scientific coordinator of the "GrEEn? project and, since 2017, a PhD candidate at MEET. "To this end, we are concentrating on the development of battery storage technologies on the basis of more environmentally friendly materials for stationary and mobile applications.