Assessing the recyclability of battery systems with the help of disassembly maps

Sammanfattning: Batteries and battery systems manufacturers face difficulties when assessing the recyclability and disasemblability of their products. Diverse evaluation methodologies have been developed; nevertheless, there is a lack of them for energy storage systems. The establishment of a method to measure these two topics for these specific products will provide a more sustainable battery industry. Northvolt is one of the companies that requires this resource for its products, hence its collaboration in this thesis. For a successful method to measure recyclability, the relevant information needs to be gathered regarding materials and disasemblability. For that, an accurate measurement of the disassembly time is also required. These are the two main focus areas within the scope of this project, adapting them within the requirements from Northvolt. To achieve this goal, this project performs scientific research on circularity of products, recyclability, design for x, and disassembly. Then, it gathers the different results according to relevant metrics and establishes a personalized method for the company. Moreover, a calculation method for the disassembly time is developed and implemented in a specific product, together with the recyclability evaluation, and a disassembly map that displays the sequence of disassembly. All these results are gathered into a 'disassembly tool' and used as a guideline for future products within Northvolt. This tool is intended to give a first look at the design of a new product in the initial stages of the product development process and find possible improvements to it. These improvements were found and implemented in the upcoming revisions, and were related to not only recyclability and disasemblability but also serviceability.