Navigating PFAS Substitution Challenges in the Lithium-Ion Battery Industry

The battery industry plays a critical role in achieving the ambitious objectives in the Green Deal and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. In addition to dramatically scaling up production capacities to support the transition towards a digital and climate-neutral society, the industry also faces the challenge of replacing harmful substances by ‘sustainable by design’ alternatives whilst maintaining performance requirements. Hosted by the ZSW research institute for energy storage technologies and with participation of the RECHARGE battery industry association, FIPRA organised an information exchange with the European Commission, European Chemicals Agency and German Environment Agency to discuss the complex lithium-ion battery chemistries which are used to achieve the very different performance requirements in the automotive, power tools and consumer electronics sectors. 

The Green Deal relies on lithium-ion batteries to achieve objectives for low-emission mobility, decarbonised energy generation and digitalisation. To meet the EU’s target of 100% of new vehicle sales being zero-emission by 2035, the EU electric vehicle (EV) battery market needs to increase 250% by 2027, and 550% by 2034. At the same time, the European Commission has introduced new legislation to help ensure EV batteries meet lifetime performance, durability and other environmental requirements^[1] and intends to set durability requirements for other types of batteries^[2].

The battery industry is willing and interested to engage in the development of innovation timelines that enable substitution of PFAS in batteries without compromising performance or durability / longevity goals, such as the European Commission’s pilot substitution planning project. The substitution planning approach should address the difference in cycle life testing requirements, design validation and approval requirements between the automotive, power tools and consumer electronics sectors.  
 
One of the main challenges is the complex cathode chemistry.  The cathodes in today’s high performance lithium-ion batteries use about 2% polyvinylidine difluoride (PVDF) as the binder material.  PVDF is the only industry proven material which has all the properties needed to meet all the functional requirements for the cathode binder material in all applications. 
 
Recent innovations have enabled some companies to adopt non-PFAS polymers as the cathode binder in some battery applications.  However, using this cathode binder in high performance batteries in automotive, power tool and consumer electronics applications would result in severe performance regressions.  
 
New innovations are needed to identify and develop new cathode binder materials that meet environmental goals and minimise performance regressions in high performance applications. This requires a holistic approach and sufficient time to investigate and qualify the impact of technical options across all stages of the battery cell life cycle.  
 
The information exchange participants will continue the discussions, extending the focus to substances beyond only PFAS in view of the upcoming identification of priority substances under the Batteries Regulation. The battery industry would welcome the continued participation of the European Commission, European Chemicals Agency and Member States in these information exchanges to continue to share knowledge and build increased understanding.

Interested to know more? Download the full report of the information exchange here.

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FIPRA arms industrial leaders with expert strategy to meet the challenges posed by the substitution of harmful substances like PFAS for critical sectors, including lithium-ion batteries. Step up and step forward with our chemicals team at your side, led by Jan Ahlskog together with special advisors Geert Dancet and Matti Vainio.

^[1] The Euro 7 regulations published May 2024 require batteries in new types of electric and hybrid cars from November 2026 to retain at least 80% of their original capacity after five years or 100000 km, and at least 72% after eight years or 160000 km
^[2] The EU Batteries Regulations published July 2023 requires the EU Commission to adopt delegated acts which will specify durability requirements for batteries