Scholars Award: An Envirotechnical Approach to Batteries, the Environment, and Questions of Sustainability

电池目前被视为新一代环保技术的关键，如电动汽车和可再生能源系统，但它们作为现代交通，通信和电气系统的关键部件也有很长的历史。本研究围绕一个中心问题展开：对电池技术历史的社会和环境分析如何为推进可持续发展政策和技术的努力提供信息？本研究课题将通过铅酸电池、碱性电池、锂离子电池这三个案例来回答这个问题。学术价值现代能源系统的历史及其社会意义是科学、技术和社会（STS）研究的中心课题。大多数STS学者都专注于大规模的能源生产和分配系统，如水电和化石燃料，满足现代社会的能源需求。该项目强调了一系列不同的、往往未得到充分解决的社会、政治和环境因素，这些因素与对电池及其使用系统至关重要的金属和化学品的生命周期有关。该项目采用环境技术方法，以环境历史和技术历史为基础，将电池及其嵌入的系统作为社会和自然的一部分进行研究。参与消费行业是全球范围内，这个项目扩展了这一方法的概念和方法，通过借鉴全球商品链分析和工业生态学。潜在的更广泛的影响这个STS研究项目的结果将有助于具体的政策讨论，包括废物和回收政策，跨界污染问题，战略和冲突矿产采购，可再生能源政策，和运输政策。它们将广泛传播给广大受众，包括工程师、政策制定者和对技术在推进可持续未来中的作用感兴趣的公众。它们将以多种方式传播，包括与电池行业相关的个人的一系列口述历史，与政策相关的研究文章，以及在本科研究生的支持下，包括网站，高中教学课程和博物馆展示在内的公共宣传。

IntroductionBatteries are currently seen as essential to a new generation of environmentally friendly technologies, such as electric cars and renewable energy systems, but they also have a long history as key components in modern transportation, communication, and electrical systems. This research is organized around a central question: How can social and environmental analysis of the history of battery technologies inform efforts to advance sustainability policy and technology? This project proposes to answer this question by examining three case studies: Lead-acid batteries, alkaline batteries, and lithium-ion batteries.Intellectual MeritThe history of modern energy systems and their social significance is a central topic in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) research. Most STS scholars have focused on large-scale systems of energy generation and distribution, such as hydroelectricity and fossil fuels, which met the energy demands of modern society. This project highlights a different and often under-addressed set of social, political, and environmental factors related to the life cycles of metals and chemicals important to batteries and the systems in which they are used. This project takes an enviro-technical approach, grounded in environmental history and history of technology, that examines batteries and the systems in which they are embedded as both social and natural. To engage a consumer industry that is global in scope, this project extends that approach conceptually and methodologically by drawing on global commodity chain analysis and industrial ecology.Potential Broader ImpactsThe results of this STS research project will contribute to specific policy discussions, including waste and recycling policy, trans-boundary pollution issues, strategic and conflict mineral sourcing, renewable energy policy, and transportation policy. They will be broadly disseminated to a broad audience including engineers, policymakers, and the general public, interested in the role of technology in advancing a sustainable future. They will be disseminated in multiple ways, including a series of oral histories with individuals involved in the battery industry, policy-relevant research articles, and, with the support of undergraduate research students, public outreach including a website, high-school teaching curricula, and museum presentations.