Battery innovation and the Circular Economy: What are patents revealing?

• Published in: Renewable energy 2023-06, Vol.209, p.516-532
• Main Authors: Metzger, Philipp, Mendonça, Sandro, Silva, José A., Damásio, Bruno
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asia; batteries; Circular economy; renewable energy sources; Secondary batteries; Technometrics; Text mining; toxicity
• ISSN: 0960-1481; 1879-0682
• DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2023.03.132

This analysis of over 90,000 secondary battery innovations (measured by international patent families) provides a comprehensive account of the long-run progress of a knowledge base with a key role in the transition to a transformative, closed-loop, Circular Economy. Innovation accelerated globally from 2000 to 2019, a sustained dynamic mostly originating in Asia. Patterns of less toxicity and more diversity in technological trajectories are detected and found to bear evidence of pro-circularity. We find a number of emergent technological trajectories, such as solid-state, lithium–sulfur, redox-flow and sodium-ion batteries, each one with a different potential to push ahead the circularity pathway, and which allow for the detection of country clusters. Through a methodology that can be of interest for further research, we examine the extent to which batteries have circular characteristics. •Over 90,000 battery inventions from the period 2000-2019 analyzed.•Patent data explored from technometric and textmetric perspectives.•Global battery patenting activity growth mostly originating in Asia.•Three country clusters emerge with different circularity potentials.•Battery advances so far suggest incomplete circular transition.