Editor’s Challenge in Life Cycle Engineering: Battery Life Cycle Engineering

Batteries are critical components of modern society, with their development and industrialization booming worldwide, powering everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. However, the manufacturing and lifecycles of batteries present several challenges that must be addressed to ensure sustainable and efficient battery use for the global green benefits this technology can provide to society. These challenges include raw and recycled material procurement, production processes, product design, end-of-life management, and recycling. As the demand for batteries continues to rapidly grow, it is essential to address these challenges from a life cycle engineering perspective to minimize the environmental impact and improve the overall performance of batteries to enable this societal transition towards electrification and a greener globe.

This Editor's Challenge invites critical, ambitious, and courageous contributions addressing theoretical, experimental, and applied research that can provide new insights and stimulate a constructive debate around the following open questions:

• How to reach sustainable lifecycles for batteries
• How to upskill/reskill the workforce for this electrification transition
• Digital twins/AR/VR for upskilling/training
• AI/ML and data analytics for battery lifecycle management
• Raw material procurement and sustainability aspects
• Digital passport, traceability, transparency in the battery lifecycle
• Energy efficiency and emissions reduction in battery lifecycles
• Battery design for improved performance and sustainability
• End-of-life management and recycling of batteries
• Circular economy approaches for the battery value chain
• Life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental impact analysis of battery-related products
• Innovations and emerging technologies within the battery manufacturing and lifecycle
• Regulatory and policy frameworks for sustainable battery lifecycles

On these above-mentioned themes, this Research Topic welcomes contributions in the form of: Original Research, Brief Research Report, Review, Mini Review, & Perspective articles.

The Specialty Chief Editors of Frontiers in Manufacturing Technology launch a new series of Research Topics to highlight current challenges across the field of Manufacturing. Other collections in the series are:

• Editor's Challenge in Digital Manufacturing - Digital Transformation of Manufacturing through Industrial Metaverse: Opportunities and Challenges for Industry 5.0

Keywords: Battery life cycle engineering, Sustainable lifecycle, Digital twin, Battery design, Life cycle assessment

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.