We present a life cycle assessment (LCA) study of a lithium/sulfur (Li/S) cell regarding its energy use (in electricity equivalents, kWh_el) and climate change (in kg carbon dioxide equivalents, CO₂ eq) with the aim of identifying improvement potentials. Possible improvements are illustrated by departing from a base case of Li/S battery design, electricity from coal power, and heat from natural gas. In the base case, energy use is calculated at 580 kWh_el kWh⁻¹ and climate change impact at 230 kg CO₂ eq kWh⁻¹ of storage capacity. The main contribution to energy use comes from the LiTFSI electrolyte salt production and the main contribution to climate change is electricity use during the cell production stage. By (i) reducing cell production electricity requirement, (ii) sourcing electricity and heat from renewable sources, (iii) improving the specific energy of the Li/S cell, and (iv) switching to carbon black for the cathode, energy use and climate change impact can be reduced by 54 and 93%, respectively. For climate change, our best-case result of 17 kg CO₂ eq kWh⁻¹ is of similar magnitude as the best-case literature results for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The lithium metal requirement of Li/S batteries and LIBs are also of similar magnitude.

我们针对锂/硫（Li / S）电池的能量消耗（以电当量，kWh _el为单位）和气候变化（以千克二氧化碳当量，CO ₂当量为单位）进行生命周期评估（LCA）研究。确定改进潜力。通过偏离Li / S电池设计的基本情况，煤电发电和天然气热发电，可以说明可能的改进。在基本情况下，能源使用量为580 kWh _el kWh ^-1，气候变化影响为230 kg CO ₂ eq kWh ^-1存储容量。对能源使用的主要贡献来自LiTFSI电解质盐的生产，对气候变化的主要贡献是电池生产阶段的用电。通过（i）降低电池生产的电力需求，（ii）从可再生资源获取电力和热量，（iii）改善Li / S电池的比能，以及（iv）改用炭黑作为阴极，能源使用和气候变化的影响可以分别减少54％和93％。对于气候变化，我们的最佳案例结果为17 kg CO ₂ eq kWh ^-1，其幅度与锂离子电池（LIB）的最佳案例文献的结果相似。Li / S电池和LIB的锂金属需求量也差不多。