Battery electric vehicles (BEV) as opposed to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) are seen as a viable solution for reducing transportation related environmental impacts. There are however advantages and disadvantages to both alternatives. Environmental life cycle assessments (LCA) are used to quantify the environmental lifecycle impact of these vehicles. The social impact for people in the value chain of these alternatives has not yet been tested. For this purpose, a social lifecycle assessment (S-LCA) can be conducted. This paper compares BEVs and ICEVs in a S-LCA according to the UNEP/SETAC guidelines, using the Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment database (PSILCA). It was found that overall, the ICEV seems to have lower levels of social risk related to the life cycle than the BEV has. These differences are smaller or opposite when the lifetime of both vehicles is assumed to be longer. The raw material extraction seems to be a hotspot for social risks, especially the extraction of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo has high risk levels. The paper includes the assessment of a future end of life scenario where BEV batteries are recycled. Recycling could reduce the amount of social risk related to the BEV. The utility of the PSILCA for this case and the general cost sensitivity of this method was discussed. It was concluded that while the PSILCA is useful to provide insights in social risks related to a products lifecycle and uncovering hotspots, it is not very suitable to compare product systems where a high number of assumptions are made. The results of this study should therefore not be used for generalisations.

Solar generated energy is an alternative to fossil fuel generated energy. However, solar modules have a lifetime and as sales are increasing, waste of solar modules is increasing as well. Cadmium telluride solar cells consist of a material that has a high intrinsic toxicity, cadmium, and a material that is scarce, tellurium. Effective recycling of these materials is therefore needed to lower their impact on the environment. In literature, studies were found that looked at the impacts of the life cycle of CdTe solar cells of which many excluded the recycling stage. As multiple pathways exist for recycling of CdTe solar modules, it is key is to see how they compare to each other. There are a few studies that did include or assessed only a recycling stage. These assessments are all done with distinctive methods, assumptions, and boundaries, making it very hard to compare these results. In literature, a lack incompetent comparison between recycling pathways, including qualitative and quantitative aspect, was identified. The goal of this research was to find qualitative and quantitative trade-offs of potentialEnd-of-Life strategies that are able to lower environmental impacts of CdTe solar modules. By conducting harmonization on existing environmental impact data found in literature and assessing environmental impacts in a Life Cycle Assessment, the quantitative trade-offs were found. Qualitative trade-offs were found in an assessment that include maturity of technology, costs of the technology, and value of recovered material. General quantitative trade-offs that were found were that recycling lowered the environmental impacts, but energy needed for recycling had a large contribution to the remaining impacts. Additionally, the use of chemical recycle processes lowered impacts, however the chemicals that were used gave a large contribution to the impacts remaining due to extraction of chemicals and treatment of wastewater. General qualitative trade-offs could be found in the fact that high recovery values often have high costs related to them. Especially the use of chemicals does retrieve a lot of material, but I expensive. In summary, trade-offs can be found in energy and chemicals use and in costs versus value retrieved. The results of this study add knowledge on the trade-offs of each recycle strategy. This can be weighed against each other and be helpful in deciding which recycle pathways to follow when the incoming CdTe solar module waste needs to be disposed of.

This thesis studies the criticality of gallium, indium and silicon for a 1GWp production of III-V/silicon solar cells and assesses the environmental impacts and economic costs \& benefits of a recycling process for these solar cells. III-V/silicon is an emerging solar cell technology, that is expected to enter the market in between 2025 and 2035. It was found that gallium availability can become restrictive for large scale production of III-V/silicon cells, because the amount of high-purity gallium needed for an annual 1 GWp production of III-V/silicon cells (176.3 tons) is close to the entire 2019 world production of high-purity gallium (205 tons). It is therefore recommended to create additional high-purity refineries to refine low grade gallium to high-purity gallium. Moreover, in the long term, gallium can be recycled from end-of-life III-V/silicon cells. Various gallium recovery technologies from end-of-life products have been summed up from a literature review. One of them, an ethanol dilution process, is included in the flowchart of a recycling process for III-V/silicon solar panels. The environmental impacts of the recycling process are compared to the cradle-to-gate impacts of the production of the panels, by performing a life cycle assessment (LCA). The impact categories where the recycling process scores high are climate change, marine eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, fossil resource depletion and ozone layer depletion. A suggestion to reduce the climate change impacts is to recycle the waste plastic that comes from the EoL panels, instead of incinerating this plastic. Finally a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is performed. The CBA shows that recycling gallium, indium and silicon from 1GWp end-of-life III-V/silicon cells is likely to be profitable. With a product lifetime of 25 to 30 years, recycling is assumed to be profitable starting in the timeframe 2050-2065.