Battery Passport

Abstract

Disclosed is an apparatus for producing battery components associated with a battery passport, the apparatus including: a collector configured to collect battery data associated with battery components, the battery components including physical identifiers; an assigner configured to assign the physical identifiers to distributed identifiers for generating a battery passport associated with the produced battery components; and a battery passport generator configured to generate the battery passport by receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least a component of a battery, and in response to the request, generating a battery passport that includes the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least the component of the battery.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to apparatus for generating a battery passport, a computer-implemented method for generating a battery passport, respective computer program elements, uses of the battery passport, battery components and / or batteries associated with such a battery passport, battery passports including one or more decentralized identifiers and data relating to battery data, and methods for producing battery components associated with such a battery passport. [Background technology]

[0002] Battery supply has to meet several regulatory requirements, which vary depending on the chemical used in the battery. For example, in the automotive supply chain, chemical manufacturers provide standardized information using the International Chemical Product Data System (IMDS). Such a system allows data to be collected along the automotive supply chain. Participants in the automotive supply chain register with the IMDS service and keep their product entries in a central database provided and hosted by a third-party provider.

[0003] Systems like IMDS are static with respect to data, error-prone and cumbersome to handle and maintain. Due to the very specific and centralized setup of such systems, data exchange and sharing is laborious. To achieve a more efficient and reliable battery production, data exchange and sharing between value chain players needs to be simplified. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In one aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus for generating a battery passport is provided, the apparatus comprising: and one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions thereon that, when executed by the one or more computing nodes, are configured to cause the apparatus to perform the following steps: receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with at least one component of the battery or battery data for at least one component of the battery; In response to the request, generating a battery passport that includes the distributed identifier and data related to battery data of at least one component of the battery.

[0005] In a further aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method for generating a battery passport is disclosed, the method comprising: receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with at least one component of the battery or battery data for at least one component of the battery; generating a battery passport in response to the request, the passport including the distributed identifier and data related to battery data of at least one component of the battery; Includes.

[0006] In a further aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus for generating a battery passport is disclosed, the apparatus comprising: at least one receiving unit configured to receive a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with at least one component of the battery or battery data of at least one component of the battery; at least one generating unit configured to generate a battery passport in response to the request, the battery passport including a distributed identifier and data related to battery data of at least one component of the battery; Includes.

[0007] A further aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for producing or providing a component of a battery associated with a battery passport, the method comprising: Producing a battery component connected to or including a physical identifier; assigning physical identifiers to distributed identifiers for generating battery passports associated with components of the produced batteries; generating a battery passport according to a computer-implemented method for generating a battery passport or by a system or device for generating a battery passport; Includes.

[0008] A further aspect of the present disclosure relates to a system for producing or providing components for a battery associated with a battery passport, the system comprising: a production line configured to produce a battery component coupled to or including a physical identifier; an assigner configured to assign physical identifiers to distributed identifiers for generating battery passports associated with components of batteries to be produced; a battery passport generator configured to generate a battery passport by receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least one component of a battery, and in response to the request, generating a battery passport that includes the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of the at least one component of the battery; Includes.

[0009] A further aspect of the present disclosure relates to a computer-implemented method for producing or providing components of a battery associated with a battery passport, the method comprising: requesting provision of a distributed identifier based on the physical identifier of a component of the battery, and assigning the distributed identifier to the physical identifier; generating, in response to the request, a battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the components of the battery to be produced, preferably the electrode active material, according to a computer-implemented method for generating a battery passport or by a system or device for generating a battery passport; Includes.

[0010] A further aspect of the present disclosure relates to an apparatus for producing or providing components of a battery associated with a battery passport, the apparatus comprising: and one or more computing nodes and one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions thereon that, when executed by the one or more computing nodes, are configured to cause the apparatus to perform the following steps: Requesting a distributed identifier based on the physical identifiers of the components of the battery and assigning the distributed identifier to the physical identifiers; Generating a battery passport in response to a request, the battery passport including a distributed identifier and data related to the produced components of the battery, preferably the electrode active material, wherein the battery passport is generated by receiving a request providing a distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least the components of the battery, and generating a battery passport in response to the request, the battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of the components of the battery.

[0011] A further aspect of the present disclosure relates to an apparatus for producing or providing components of a battery associated with a battery passport, the apparatus comprising: a requester configured to request provision of the distributed identifier based on a physical identifier of a component of the battery; an assigner configured to assign a distributed identifier to a physical identifier; a battery passport generator configured to generate a battery passport including a distributed identifier and data related to the produced components of the battery, preferably the electrode active material, the battery passport being generated by receiving a request to provide the distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least the components of the battery and in response to the request generating a battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least the components of the battery; Includes.

[0012] In a further aspect, an apparatus for producing or providing components of a battery associated with a battery passport is disclosed, the apparatus comprising: a collector configured to collect battery data associated with a component of the battery or associated with the production of the component of the battery, the component of the battery being connected to or including a physical identifier; an assigner configured to assign physical identifiers to distributed identifiers for generating battery passports associated with components of batteries produced; a battery passport generator configured to generate a battery passport by receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least a component of the battery and generating a battery passport in response to the request, the battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least the component of the battery; Includes.

[0013] In a further aspect, a computer-implemented method for producing or providing components of a battery associated with a battery passport is disclosed, the method comprising: Collecting battery data associated with a component of the battery or associated with the production of the component of the battery, the component of the battery being connected to or including a physical identifier; assigning the physical identifiers to a decentralized identifier for generating a battery passport associated with the produced components of the battery; generating a battery passport, the generating of the battery passport including receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least a component of the battery, and in response to the request, generating a battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least the component of the battery; Includes.

[0014] In a further aspect, a system for producing or providing components for a battery associated with a battery passport is disclosed, the system comprising: a production line configured to produce battery components connected to or including a physical identifier; a collector configured to collect battery data associated with a component of the battery or associated with the production of the component of the battery, the component of the battery being connected to or including a physical identifier; an assigner configured to assign physical identifiers to distributed identifiers for generating battery passports associated with produced components of the battery; a battery passport generator configured to receive a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least a component of the battery, and in response to the request, generate a battery passport by generating a battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least the component of the battery; Includes.

[0015] In a further aspect, a method for producing or providing components of a battery associated with a battery passport is disclosed, the method comprising: Producing a battery component connected to or including a physical identifier; collecting battery data associated with a component of the battery or associated with production of the component of the battery, the component of the battery being connected to or including a physical identifier; assigning the physical identifier to a distributed identifier for generating a battery passport associated with the produced components of the battery; wherein generating the battery passport includes receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least the components of the battery, and generating a battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least the components of the battery.

[0016] Further aspects of the present disclosure relate to use of a battery passport generated according to a computer-implemented method for generating a battery passport, or by a system or apparatus for generating a battery passport, for further processing at least one component of a battery and / or a battery associated with the battery passport.

[0017] Further aspects of the present disclosure relate to use of a battery passport generated according to a computer-implemented method for producing or providing a component of a battery associated with a battery passport, or by a system or apparatus for producing or providing a component of a battery associated with a battery passport, for further processing at least one component of a battery and / or a battery associated with the battery passport.

[0018] Further aspects of the present disclosure relate to battery components and / or batteries associated with a battery passport, where the battery passport including one or more distributed identifiers and data related to the battery data is generated according to a computer-implemented method for generating a battery passport or by a system or device for generating a battery passport.

[0019] Further aspects of the present disclosure relate to battery components and / or batteries associated with a battery passport, where a battery passport including one or more distributed identifiers and data related to battery data is generated according to a computer-implemented method for producing or providing battery components associated with the battery passport, or by a system or apparatus for producing or providing battery components associated with the battery passport.

[0020] A further aspect of the present disclosure relates to a battery passport including one or more distributed identifiers and data related to battery data, the battery passport generated according to a computer-implemented method for generating a battery passport or by a system or device for generating a battery passport.

[0021] A further aspect of the disclosure relates to a battery passport including one or more distributed identifiers and data related to battery data, the battery passport generated according to a computer-implemented method for producing or providing a battery component associated with the battery passport, or by a system or apparatus for producing or providing a battery component associated with the battery passport.

[0022] A further aspect of the disclosure relates to a battery passport including one or more distributed identifiers and data related to battery data, the battery passport generated according to a computer-implemented method for producing or providing a battery component associated with the battery passport, or by a system or apparatus for producing or providing a battery component associated with the battery passport.

[0023] A further aspect of the present disclosure relates to a computer program element having instructions that, when executed on one or more computing nodes, perform steps of a computer-implemented method for generating a battery passport or for producing or providing a battery component associated with the battery passport.

[0024] Any disclosures and embodiments described herein relate to the above methods, systems, and computer program elements, and vice versa. Advantageously, advantages provided by any of the embodiments and examples apply equally to all other embodiments and examples, and vice versa.

[0025] As used herein, "determining" also includes "initiating or causing to be initiated a determining," "querying" also includes "initiating or causing to be initiated a query, correlation and / or matching," and "providing" also includes "initiating or causing to be initiated a determining, generating, selecting, transmitting or receiving." "Initiating or causing to be performed an action" includes processing signals that activate a computing device to perform the respective action.

[0026] The methods, devices, systems, and computer elements disclosed herein provide an efficient, secure, and robust way for data sharing or exchange between different participant nodes in the battery value chain. In particular, attaching a decentralized identifier and associated battery data allows simplified and customizable data sharing or exchange from the battery industry to battery supply chain participants. Thus, a simpler way of data exchange and sharing between value chain players is provided, enabling more efficient and reliable battery production. A more reliable and efficient further processing of the supplied batteries by upstream participants in the battery supply chain is achieved, while the data can remain the property of the battery supplier providing to said upstream participants. By directly combining the data related to the battery with the decentralized identifier and optionally one or more authentication mechanisms, a more reliable and secure data sharing and exchange can be provided. Furthermore, by including one or more authorization mechanisms, data sharing or exchange can be performed in a more flexible manner with multiple data consuming services from different participants in the battery supply chain accessing the battery data, e.g., battery material composition data.

[0027] It is an object of the present invention to provide an efficient, sustainable and robust method for providing high resolution, variable rate application to increase the effectiveness of treatment application, avoid unnecessary and / or over-treatment of agricultural land, and save on costs and quantities of treatments.

[0028] These and other objects which will become apparent on reading the following description are solved by the subject matter of the independent claims. The dependent claims present preferred embodiments of the invention.

[0029] The term "battery" may refer to any structure configured to store electrical power, for example, on an electrochemical basis. A battery may be, but is not limited to, a structure including a group of two or more cells connected together. A battery may include a lithium ion battery. At least one component of a battery may include any component of a battery, any combination of components of a battery, or a battery having all the components. The term battery component should be understood to include a battery having all the components. A battery component may be an anode active material, a cathode active material, an electrolyte composition, an anode element, a cathode element, a separator, an electrolyte, a battery cell, a battery module, packaging material, a battery management module, a cooling module, a high voltage module, wiring, a battery housing, etc.

[0030] The battery passport may include a distributed identifier and a digital representation of the battery data. The digital representation may include one or more representations for accessing the battery data or a portion or subset thereof. The digital representation may include one or more representations of the battery data or a portion or subset thereof. The battery passport may include data related to the battery data, cryptographic information such as a public key, and a distributed identifier. The data related to the battery data may include a digital representation of the battery data. The digital representation pointing to the battery data or a portion thereof may include at least one interface to a data providing service. It may further include at least one interface to a data consuming service. It may include an endpoint for data exchange or sharing (resource endpoint) or an endpoint for interaction with the service (service endpoint) that is uniquely identified via a communication protocol. The digital representation pointing to the battery data or a portion thereof may be uniquely associated with the distributed identifier.

[0031] The decentralized identifier can be associated with any identifier uniquely associated with at least one component of the battery. The decentralized identifier may include an identifier associated with the battery and / or at least one component of the battery. The decentralized identifier may include one or more identifiers associated with the battery and / or at least one component of the battery. The decentralized identifier may include any identifier uniquely associated with a data owner and material composition data associated with at least one component of the battery to be recycled. The decentralized identifier may include a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) or a Digital Identifier (DID). The decentralized identifier may be issued by a central or decentralized identity issuer. Through the unique association of the decentralized identifier with the data owner and the material composition data, access to the material composition data is controlled by the data owner. The data owner may be any producer of the components of the battery. This is in contrast to a central authority scheme where identifiers are provided by a central authority and access to the data is controlled by such central authority. Distributed in this context refers to the use of identifiers controlled by the data owner. The decentralized identifier may be connected to a digital representation of the material construction data. The digital representation may include a representation for accessing the material construction data or a portion thereof. The decentralized identifier may be connected to authentication information and / or authorization information. The decentralized identifier may be connected to further battery data. The decentralized identifier may include any unique identifier uniquely associated with the data owner and the battery data. The decentralized identifier may include a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) or a Digital IDentifier (DID). The decentralized identifier may be issued by a central or decentralized ID issuer. The decentralized identifier may include authentication information.Through the unique association of a decentralized identifier with a physical entity and the battery data, access to the battery data may be controlled by a data owner (e.g., a producer of at least one component of the battery). This is in contrast to a central authority scheme where the identifier is provided by a central authority and access to the data is controlled by such central authority. Decentralized in this context refers to the use of identifiers in an implementation controlled by the data owner.

[0032] The term "physical entity" is understood broadly in this case and relates to the physical embodiment of a component of a battery. A physical entity may be any product in the battery supply chain, such as a raw material or base material, a chemical product or material, a component, a component assembly, or a final product. A physical entity may be an electrode active material, such as an anode active material or a cathode active material.

[0033] The term "data owner" is understood broadly in this case and includes any entity that generates data. The data owner may be the producer of at least one component of the battery. The data generating node may be coupled to an entity that owns or produces the physical product for which the data is generated. The data may be generated by a third party entity for the entity that owns or produces the physical product for which the data is generated. Example: a battery component producer.

[0034] The term “data consuming service” in this case shall be understood broadly and includes computer-executable instructions for accessing and / or processing data, such as battery data, associated with a data owner, e.g., a battery component producer or any supply chain participant.

[0035] The term "data providing service" in this case shall be understood broadly and includes computer-executable instructions for providing and / or processing data, such as battery data, associated with a data owner for access and / or processing by a data consumption service.

[0036] In one embodiment, generating the battery passport includes providing a distributed identifier associated with a physical entity of at least one component of the battery. In this context, the physical entity may relate to a physical product associated with the distributed identifier. The physical entity may be any entity in the battery supply chain. The physical entity may relate to at least one material component of the battery, such as an electrode active material, a positive electrode active material, a negative electrode active material, and / or at least one individual component of the battery, such as a battery cell, a battery pack, a battery, or a combination thereof.

[0037] In one embodiment, the distributed identifier is or is assigned to a physical identifier connected to at least one component of the battery. The connection between the physical identifier and at least one component of the battery may be provided by a physical connection to a physical product or physical entity. For example, the physical identifier may be connected to a physical entity of at least one component of the battery. The physical entity may be a raw material such as cobalt, nickel or lithium, an intermediate product such as an electrode active material, a positive electrode active material or a negative electrode active material, or a battery. The physical identifier may correspond one-to-one to the virtual identifier or one-to-one to the physical identifier by a physical connection to the physical entity. In one embodiment, the physical identifier is physically attached to at least one component of the battery via an identifier element.

[0038] A "physical identifier" or "physical identifier element" may refer to any virtual or physical configuration that associates a distributed identifier with a battery or at least one component of a battery. A physical identifier may be any identifier of a produced component of a battery, such as a batch number or a part number. A physical identifier element may include a passive or active element, such as, but not limited to, a QR code or an RFID tag. A physical identifier element may be physically connected to a battery or at least one component of a battery. An identifier element may include a marker embedded in a material, a tag such as a barcode, a QR code, an RFID tag, or a similar physical configuration that allows a battery or at least one component of a battery to be digitally identified.

[0039] In one embodiment, an identifier element including a physical identifier is physically attached to at least one component of the battery. The physical identifier may be provided from a sensor that reads the physical identifier element, which is physically connected to at least one component of the battery. The identification element may be physically connected to at least one component of the battery (e.g., the housing of the battery) to uniquely identify at least one component of the battery. The identification element may be physically connected to any component of the battery (e.g., the packaging of the electrode active material, the battery cell or module) to uniquely identify the component of the battery.

[0040] In one embodiment, the battery data associated with the distribution identifier includes raw material data, which may include data indicative of virgin or recycled raw materials, raw material characteristics related to environmental impact, or raw material characteristics associated with a geographical origin.

[0041] In one embodiment, the battery data associated with the distributed identifier includes material composition data of at least one component of the battery. In one embodiment, the battery data associated with the distributed identifier includes chemical composition data of an electrode active material (e.g., a cathode active material). The chemical composition may relate to one or more components and their amounts.

[0042] In one embodiment, the battery data associated with the distributed identifier includes and / or the distributed identifier is associated with data related to battery material properties, which may include physical properties such as thermodynamic, mechanical, electrodynamic, optical, acoustic material properties, and / or chemical properties such as, but not limited to, standard electrode potential and electronegativity.

[0043] The battery data may include material composition data defining a material composition of at least one component of the battery, emissions data defining emissions associated with at least one component of the battery, production data associated with the production of at least one component of the battery, recycled content data defining the recycled content of at least one component of the battery, bio-based content data defining the bio-based content of at least one component of the battery, or a combination thereof.

[0044] The material composition data may relate to the material composition of the battery or at least one battery component. The material composition data may relate to at least one material type, at least one material property, and / or at least one chemical composition associated with at least one component of the battery. The material type, material property, and / or chemical composition may at least partially define the material composition. The material type may include, but is not limited to, material specifications such as plastics, composites, metal-containing materials, etc. present in the battery or a component of the battery, such as an intermediate product, by-product, or raw material. The material properties include, but are not limited to, performance, quality, physical material properties, such as thermodynamic, mechanical, electrodynamic, optical, and acoustic material properties, or chemical material properties, such as standard electrode potential and electronegativity. The chemical composition may relate to at least one component included in the composition. For example, the chemical composition may be defined by absolute or relative amounts of one or more elements, chemical compounds, components included in the material.

[0045] The material composition data may be associated with the material composition of one or more components of the battery. The material composition data may define the material composition on a composition basis. For example, the material composition data may at least partially define the chemical composition of an electrode active material, an anode active material, an electrolyte, or a housing. The material composition data may be associated with the chemical composition of an electrode active material (e.g., a cathode active material). The battery identifier may be associated with any component that includes an electrode active material. The component may be an electrode element, such as an anode element or a cathode element, a cell, a cell module, or a battery. In one embodiment, the material composition data is related to the chemical composition of the electrode active material. The material composition data may define at least one component of the chemical composition of the electrode active material (e.g., a component including a transition metal). The at least one distributed identifier may be associated with a component of the battery whose material composition is defined by the material composition data. The at least one distributed identifier may be associated with a first component of the battery including a second component whose material composition is defined by the material composition data. At least one distributed identifier may be associated with an electrode active material having a material composition defined by the material composition data.

[0046] At least one distributed identifier may be associated with a battery, a cell, a cell pack, an electrode element including an electrode active material having a material composition defined by the material composition data, an electrode active material, or a combination thereof. The data associated with the electrode active material may include data associated with a raw material accessible, for example, via the raw material distributed identifier. The data associated with the electrode active material may include data associated with a material composition of the electrode active material. The material composition data may be associated with a chemical composition of the electrode active material. The material composition data may define at least one component (e.g., a component including a transition metal) of the chemical composition of the electrode active material. The material composition data may be associated with a positive electrode active material. In such an embodiment, the material composition may define the chemical composition of the positive electrode active material. By way of example, lithium nickel manganese (NCM type), such as lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (LiNiCoMnO2), lithium iron phosphate (LPF type), such as lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4 / C), lithium nickel manganese spinel (LiNi 0.5 Mn 1.5 The material composition data may be associated with the anode active material. In such an embodiment, the material composition may refer to the chemical composition of the anode active material. Examples include natural graphite, synthetic graphite, other graphite types, or combinations thereof.

[0047] The positive electrode active material may include a layered oxide (LiMO2 with M=Co, Ni, Al, such as LCO (LiCoO2), NCM (LiNixMnyCozO2), or NCA (LiNixCoyAlzO2)), a spinel (LiMO2O4 with M=Mn, Ni, such as LMO (LiMnO4)), or a phosphate (LiMPO4 with M=Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, such as LiFePO4).

[0048] The recycled content data and / or bio-based content data may include any data related to the recycled content or physical entity at any stage in the supply chain used to provide or manufacture at least one component of the battery, which may be data related to the recycled content or bio-based content of an electrode active material, such as an anode active material or a cathode active material.

[0049] The emission data may include any data related to the environmental footprint of at least one component of the battery. The environmental footprint may refer to an entity and its associated environmental footprint. The environmental footprint may be physical entity specific. It may be data defining emissions related to at least one component of the battery. It may be data defining emissions related to an electrode active material, such as an anode active material or a cathode active material. For example, the environmental footprint may be related to a product, a company, a process, such as a manufacturing process, a raw material or base material, a chemical product or material, a component, a component assembly, a final product, a combination thereof, or additional entity specific relationships related to at least one component of the battery. The emission data may include data related to the carbon footprint of a chemical product. The emission data may include data related to greenhouse gases emitted, for example, during the production of the battery. The emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions can include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbon (HFC), perfluorocarbon (PFC), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), combinations of these, and additional emissions. Emissions data may include data related to the greenhouse gas emissions of the entity's or company's own operations (production, power plants, waste incineration). Scope 2 may include emissions from outsourced energy production. Scope 3 may include all other emissions along the value chain. Specifically, this includes the greenhouse gas emissions of raw materials obtained from suppliers. Product Carbon Impact (PCF) may be the sum of greenhouse gas emissions and removals from consecutive and linked process steps related to a specific product. Cradle-to-gate PCFs allow for the summation of greenhouse gas emissions based on selected process steps from extraction from the resource to the gate where the product leaves the enterprise. Such PCFs are sometimes called partial PCFs.To arrive at such a total, each company offering any product could provide as accurately as possible the scope 1 and scope 2 contributions to the PCF for each of its products, and obtain reliable and consistent data on the PCFs of purchased energy (scope 2) and raw materials (scope 3).

[0050] The production data may include any data related to the production of at least one component of the battery or a product at any stage of the battery supply chain. Preferably, the production data includes battery production data from the production of at least one component of the battery. The production data may include monitoring data and / or control data associated with the production of at least one component of the battery, such as an electrode active material, a cathode active material, an anode active material, a chemical material or product for a battery component, a battery component, a battery, a battery component assembly, or a combination thereof. The production data may include measurement data related to the product quality of at least one component of the battery or a product at any stage of the battery supply chain.

[0051] In one embodiment, the distributed identifier is associated with a material or physical component of a battery whose material composition is defined by the battery data or material composition data. In one embodiment, the distributed identifier is associated with a material or physical component of a battery, battery, battery cell, or cell pack of a battery whose material composition is defined by the battery data or material composition data.

[0052] In one embodiment, the distributed identifier is associated with a first component of a battery including a second component whose material composition data identifies the material composition. The distributed identifier may be associated with a battery, cell pack of a battery, whose material composition data identifies the material composition. The distributed identifier may be associated with battery data of the first component, the battery data of the first component including battery data of at least a second component of the battery, the battery data of the at least second component defining the material composition. The distributed identifier may be associated with battery data of a battery, battery pack and / or battery cell, the battery data of the battery, battery pack and / or battery cell including battery data of battery materials such as electrode active materials, the battery data of battery materials such as electrode active materials defining the material composition.

[0053] In one embodiment, the battery passport for access by the supply chain participants is provided under the management of a data provisioning service associated with the battery component producer. In one embodiment, the distributed identifier is provided by one central node or one or more distributed nodes. The distributed identifier generated by one central node or one or more distributed nodes may be provided to the node generating the battery passport and preferably to at least one authenticated data registry node accessible by the data provisioning service and / or the data consuming service. This allows for customized sharing or exchange of data regarding the battery and the battery supply chain to which the battery is supplied. In particular, the data provisioning service and / or the data consuming service may customize the data sharing or exchange protocol based on the anchoring of the distributed identifier to the battery data.

[0054] In one embodiment, the battery passport includes one or more authentication mechanisms and one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentralized identifier and data related to the battery data. In particular, a data consuming service (e.g., associated with a first battery component producer) requesting access to the battery data and / or a data providing service (e.g., associated with a second battery component producer, such as a downstream supply chain participant) providing access to the chemical process data may be authenticated. Such authentication may be based on the data associated with the decentralized identity and the authentication mechanisms. Based on the authorization rules, a data providing service associated with a second battery component producer, such as a downstream supply chain participant, may provide a data consuming service associated with the first battery component, such as a controlled access to a portion or subset of the data.

[0055] In one embodiment of the method for producing a battery component, the assignment of the physical identifier and the distributed identifier is performed through an ID generator running on the production system and / or the distributed computing system. In one embodiment of the method for producing a battery component, the physical identifier of the battery component is provided by a detector that detects a physical identification element associated with the battery component. In one embodiment of the method for producing a battery component, the battery component is a material component of the battery, preferably an electrode material, more preferably an electrode active material, and most preferably a cathode active material.

[0056] In one embodiment of the method for producing a battery component, generating the battery passport comprises collecting or accessing data relating to the battery component, preferably the electrode active material, more preferably the cathode active material, recorded prior to and / or during production of the battery component, preferably the electrode active material, more preferably the cathode active material. In one embodiment of the method for producing a battery component, the data relating to the battery component, preferably the electrode active material, more preferably the cathode active material, comprises input or raw material data relating to inputs or raw materials used to produce the battery component, preferably the electrode active material, more preferably the cathode active material, or the data relating to the battery component, preferably the electrode active material, more preferably the cathode active material, comprises at least one distributed identifier associated with inputs or raw materials used to produce the battery component, preferably the electrode active material, more preferably the cathode active material. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0057] In the following, the present disclosure will be further explained with reference to the enclosed figures. [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a battery having a battery identification element. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a battery component having an identification element. [Figure 3a] 3a and 3b are diagrams illustrating example embodiments of a centralized computing environment and a decentralized computing environment having computing nodes. [Figure 3b] 3a and 3b are diagrams illustrating example embodiments of a centralized computing environment and a decentralized computing environment having computing nodes. [Figure 3c] FIG. 3c illustrates an example embodiment of a distributed computing environment. [Figure 3d]FIG. 3d illustrates an example environment for making one producer's data accessible for processing by other producers. [Figure 4] A diagram showing an example of ID-based data for at least one battery component, ID-based battery passport data, and an ID manager. [Diagram 5] FIG. 13 illustrates another example of ID-based data for at least one battery component, ID-based battery passport data, and an ID manager. [Figure 6] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a production facility that produces at least one component of a battery associated with a battery passport. [Figure 7] FIG. 13 illustrates another example of a production facility that produces at least one component of a battery associated with a battery passport. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 illustrates an example production system that produces multiple components of batteries associated with one or more battery passports. [Figure 9] FIG. 1 illustrates an example production system that produces multiple components of batteries associated with one or more battery passports. [Figure 10] FIG. 1 illustrates an example production system that produces multiple components of batteries associated with one or more battery passports. [Figure 11] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a battery passport. [Figure 12] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a battery passport. [Figure 13] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a battery passport. [Figure 14] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of using one or more battery passports in the context of a supply chain having at least two producers. [Figure 15] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of providing access to data via one or more battery passports. [Figure 16]FIG. 1 illustrates an example of providing access to data via one or more battery passports. [Figure 17] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of providing access to data via one or more battery passports. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0058] The following embodiments are merely examples for implementing the methods, systems, or computer elements disclosed herein and should not be considered limiting.

[0059] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a battery 10 having battery identification elements 12, 14.

[0060] The battery 10 may include a battery management system 16 and a number of battery cells 18 disposed within a battery housing 20. The battery cells 18 may be arranged within a battery pack or module having a number of the battery cells 18. The battery cells 10 may include an electrolyte 22, a negative electrode element 24, a positive electrode element 26, and a separator 28.

[0061] Depending on the application, the battery includes different material compositions for different components. For example, the battery may be a lithium-ion battery. The positive electrode element 26 may include an active material coated on a current collector foil, such as an aluminum foil or a copper foil. In addition, it may include a binder, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and carbon as a conductive agent. The positive electrode active material may include layered oxides (LiMO2 with M=Co, Ni, Al, such as LCO(LiCoO2), NCM(LiNixMnyCozO2), NCA(LiNixCoyAlzO2), etc.), spinels (LiMO2O4 with M=Mn, Ni, such as LMO(LiMnO4), etc.), or phosphates (LiMPO4 with M=Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, such as LiFePO4).

[0062] The negative electrode element 24 may include a negative electrode active material coated on a current collector foil, such as an aluminum foil or a copper foil. The negative electrode active material may include synthetic graphite, natural graphite, or a composition thereof. Additionally, the active material may include silicon, SiO2, lithium titanate (LTO), or a combination thereof. Additionally, the active material may include a binder, such as styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), a polymeric thickener, such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), and a carbonate as a conductive agent.

[0063] The electrolyte may include salts, solvents, and additives such as carbonates, esters, and ethers to provide electrical conductivity. A mixture of cyclic carbonates, such as ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC), and open-chain carbonates, such as dimethyl carbonate (DMC), may be included. Lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), lithium bis(trifluoromethyl)sulfonylimide (LiTFSI) and its derivatives (e.g., lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI)), or lithium [tris(pentafluoroethyl)-trifluorophosphate] (LiFAP), lithium 4,5-dicyano-2-trifluoromethylimidazolide (LiTDI), lithium bis(oxalyl)borate (LiBOB), ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC), and / or diethyl carbonate (DEC) may be used as the conductive salt.

[0064] The separator divides the space between the electrodes and allows ions to pass through. Types of separators include microporous membranes, ceramic-coated separators, nonwoven mats, solid inorganic electrolytes, and polymer electrolytes. Polyolefin-based membranes (e.g., coated with PVDF or ceramic) may be used.

[0065] The battery identification elements 12, 14 may be physically associated with the battery 10. The identification elements 12, 14 may be physically attached to the battery housing and may be part of the battery management system 16. The identification elements 12, 14 may be located inside or outside the battery housing 20. The identification elements 12, 14 may be passive identification elements 14. The passive elements 14 may be located on the outer surface of the battery housing 20. The passive elements 14 may be based on markers embedded in the material. The passive elements 14 may include printed codes such as bar codes or QR codes. The identification elements 12, 14 may be active identification elements 14. The active elements 14 may be transmitter or transceiver tags such as RFID tags, enabling communication via, for example, NFC, Bluetooth, Zigbee, or other suitable short to medium range communication protocols. The identification elements 14 may be part of the battery management system 16, or a digital battery identifier may be stored in the battery management system 16.

[0066] The battery identification elements 12, 14 may be associated with a digital battery identifier. The digital battery identifier may be unique to the battery. The digital battery identifier may be further associated with data related to the identified battery. Such data may include any data collected during the production or life of the battery 10. For example, such data may include material data, such as material composition data collected during the production of the battery, or monitoring data collected during the use of the battery may be associated with the digital battery identifier.

[0067] The digital battery identifier may include at least one decentralized identifier. The decentralized identifier may include a unique identifier uniquely associated with the data owner and the identified battery 10. The decentralized identifier may include a Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) or a Digital IDentifier (DID). The decentralized identifier may be issued by a central ID issuer or a decentralized ID issuer. The decentralized identifier may include authentication information for authentication of data associated with the identified battery. Through the unique association of the decentralized identifier with the battery 10, the identified access to data associated with the identified battery is controlled by at least one data owner. This is in contrast to a central authority scheme where the identifier is provided by a central authority and access to the data is controlled by such central authority. Decentralized in this context refers to the use of the identifier as controlled by any data owner. The data may be hosted in an associated database or under the control of the data owner. The identification elements 12, 14 may be configured to provide a digital battery identifier for accessing data associated with the identified battery.

[0068] In particular, the digital battery identifier may be associated with material composition data that defines the material composition of one or more components of the battery. The digital battery identifier may be associated with the battery 10, and the material composition data may define the material composition of one or more components of the battery 10.

[0069] FIG. 2 shows a schematic of a battery component 30 having identification elements 32, 34.

[0070] The battery component 30 may include one or more subcomponents of the battery 10. The subcomponents may include the battery management system 16, the battery housing 20, a battery module or pack having a plurality of battery cells 22, the battery cells 22, or a combination of such subcomponents. A battery component identification element 32, 34 may be associated with the battery component 30. The identification element 32, 34 may be physically attached to the battery component 30. The identification element 32, 34 may be located inside or outside the battery component 30. The identification element 32, 34 may be a passive or active identification element 32, 34 as described in the context of FIG. 1. The battery identification element 32, 34 may be associated with a digital battery component identifier. The digital battery identifier may include at least one distributed identifier associated with the identified battery component 30 as described in the context of FIG. 1. In particular, the identification element 32, 34 may be configured to provide a digital battery component identifier for accessing data related to the identified battery component, such as material composition data. The battery identifier may be associated with a component 30 whose material composition data defines a material composition.

[0071] 3a-3c show different computing environments, such as centralized, decentralized and distributed. The disclosed method, apparatus, system, use and computer elements may be implemented in a distributed or at least partially distributed computing environment. Data provision, determination and processing may be realized by different computing nodes, which may be implemented in a centralized, distributed or discrete computing environment.

[0072] Figures 3a, b show example embodiments of a centralized computing environment and a distributed computing environment having computing nodes. Figure 3c shows an exemplary embodiment of a distributed computing environment. Figure 3d shows an example environment for making data accessible. Such an environment may be implemented according to standards based on the International Data Space (IDS) and Digital Identifier from the W3C. Such an implementation helps to make data associated with a distributed identifier from a material provider accessible to a data consumer.

[0073] FIG. 3a illustrates an example embodiment of a centralized computing system 100 having a central computing node 101 (shown as a solid circle in the center) and multiple peripheral computing nodes 101.1-101.n (shown as solid circles around the edges). The term "computing system" is broadly defined herein to include one or more computing nodes, a system of nodes, or a combination thereof. The term "computing node" is broadly defined herein to refer to any device or system that includes at least one physical and tangible processor, and / or physical and tangible memory that may have computer executable instructions thereon that are executed by the processor. Computing nodes now take an increasingly diverse range of forms. Computing nodes may be, for example, handheld devices, production equipment, sensors, monitoring systems, control systems, home appliances, laptop computers, desktop computers, mainframes, data centers, or devices not traditionally considered to be computing nodes, such as wearables (e.g., glasses, watches, etc.). Memory may be in any form, depending on the nature and form of the computing node.

[0074] In this example, the peripheral computing nodes 101.1-101.n may be connected to one central computing system (or server). In another example, the peripheral computing nodes 101.1-101.n may be connected to the central computing node, for example, via a terminal server (not shown). Most of the functionality is performed by or obtained from the central computing node (also referred to as a remote centralized location). One peripheral computing node 101.n is expanded to provide an overview of the components present in the peripheral computing nodes. The central computing node 101 may have the same components described in relation to the peripheral computing nodes 101.n.

[0075] Each computing node 101, 101.1-101.n may include at least one hardware processor 102 and memory 104. The term "processor" may refer to any logic circuitry configured to perform the basic operations of a computer or system, and / or may generally refer to a device configured to perform calculations or logical operations. In particular, a processor or computer processor may be configured to process the basic instructions that run a computer or system. It may be a semiconductor-based processor, a quantum processor, or any other type of processor configuration that processes instructions. As an example, a processor may be or may include a central processing unit (CPU). A processor may be a graphics processing unit ("GPU"), a tensor processing unit ("TPU"), a Complex Instruction Set Computing ("CISC") microprocessor, a Reduced Instruction Set Computing ("RISC") microprocessor, a Very Long Instruction Word ("VLIW") microprocessor, or a processor implementing other instruction sets, or a combination of instruction sets. The processing means may be one or more dedicated processing devices, such as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a network processor, etc. The methods, systems, and devices described herein may be implemented as software in a DSP, a microcontroller, or any other side processor, or may be implemented as hardware circuitry within an ASIC, CPLD, FPGA. The term "processor" may refer to one or more processing devices, such as a distributed system of processing devices located across multiple computer systems (e.g., cloud computing, etc.), and is not limited to a single device unless otherwise specified.

[0076] Memory 104 may refer to physical system memory, which may be volatile, non-volatile, or a combination thereof. Memory may include non-volatile mass storage devices such as physical storage media. Memory may be a computer readable storage medium, such as RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, or other non-magnetic disk storage devices such as optical disk storage devices, magnetic disk storage devices, solid state disks, or any physical and tangible storage medium that can be used to store desired program code means in the form of computer executable instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer system. Furthermore, memory may be a computer readable medium (also called a transmission medium) that stores computer executable instructions. Furthermore, upon reaching various computing system components, program code means in the form of computer executable instructions or data structures are automatically transferred from the transmission medium to the storage medium (or vice versa). For example, computer executable instructions or data structures received over a network or data link may be buffered in a RAM in a network interface module (e.g., a "NIC") and then eventually transferred to the computing system RAM and / or to a less volatile storage medium of the computing system. As such, it should be understood that storage media may be included in computing components that also (or even primarily) utilize transmission media.

[0077] A computing node 101, 101.1-101.n may include a number of structures 106 referred to as "executable components, executable instructions, computer executable instructions or instructions." For example, memory 104 of a computing node 101, 101.1-101.n may be depicted as including executable components 106. The term "executable components" or any synonyms thereof may refer to structures well understood by those skilled in the computing arts as structures that may be, or may be executed by, software, hardware, or a combination thereof. For example, when implemented in software, those skilled in the art will understand that the executable components structures include software objects, routines, methods, etc. that execute on a computing node 101, 101.1-101.n, whether such executable components reside in a heap of a computing node 101, 101.1-101.n, or whether the executable components reside on a computer readable storage medium. In such cases, one skilled in the art will recognize that the structure of the executable components resides on a computer-readable medium such that, when interpreted by one or more processors (e.g., by processor threads) of the computing nodes 101, 101.1-101.n, it causes the computing nodes 101, 101.1-101.n to perform a function. Such structures may be directly readable by a processor (as would be the case if the executable components were binary). Alternatively, the structures may be structured to be interpretable and / or compiled (either in a single step or multiple steps) to generate a binary that is directly interpretable by a processor. Such an understanding of example structures of executable components, when using the term "executable components," is well within the understanding of one of ordinary skill in the computing arts.Examples of executable components implemented in hardware include hard-coded or hard-wired logic gates that are implemented exclusively or nearly exclusively in hardware (e.g., in a field programmable gate array (FPGA), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or any other specialized circuitry). In this specification, the terms "component," "agent," "manager," "service," "engine," "module," "virtual machine," and the like are used interchangeably with the term "executable component."

[0078] The processor 102 of each computing node 101, 101.1-101.n may direct the operation of each computing node 101, 101.1-101.n in response to executing computer-executable instructions constituting executable components. For example, such computer-executable instructions may be embodied on one or more computer-readable media forming a computer program product. The computer-executable instructions may be stored in the memory 104 of each computing node 101, 101.1-101.n. The computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions and data that, when executed by the processor 101, cause the general-purpose computing node 101, 101.1-101.n, the special-purpose computing node 101, 101.1-101.n, or the special-purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Alternatively or additionally, the computer-executable instructions may configure the computing node 101, 101.1-101.n to perform a certain function or group of functions. The computer-executable instructions may be binaries (or even instructions) that undergo some translation (eg, compilation) before direct execution by a processor, such as intermediate format instructions such as assembly language (or even source code).

[0079] Each computing node 101, 101.1-101.n may include a communication channel 108 that allows each computing node 101.1-101.n to communicate with the central computing node 101. A "network" may be defined as one or more data links that allow the transmission of electronic data between computing nodes 101, 101.1-101.n and / or between modules and / or other electronic devices. When information is transferred or provided to a computing node 101, 101.1-101.n over a network or other communications connection (either wired, wireless, or a combination of wired and wireless), the computing node 101, 101.1-101.n properly considers the connection to be a transmission medium. A transmission medium may include networks and / or data links that may be used to transmit desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and that may be accessed by general-purpose or special-purpose computing nodes 101, 101.1-101.n. Combinations of the above may also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0080] Computing nodes 101, 101.1-101.n may further include a user interface system 110 for use in interfacing with a user. User interface system 110 may include output mechanism 110A as well as input mechanism 110B. The principles described herein are not limited to the exact output mechanism 110A or input mechanism 110B as this will depend on the nature of the device. However, output mechanism 110A may include, for example, a display, a speaker, a display, a haptic output, a hologram, etc. Examples of input mechanism 110B may include, for example, a microphone, a touch screen, a hologram, a camera, a keyboard, a mouse or other pointer input, any type of sensor, etc.

[0081] FIG. 3b illustrates an example embodiment of a distributed computing environment 100' having multiple computing nodes 101.1'-101.n', depicted by filled circles. In contrast to the centralized computing environment 100 illustrated in FIG. 3a, the computing nodes 101.1'-101.n' of the distributed computing environment are not connected to, and therefore are not under the control of, the central computing node 101. Instead, both hardware and software resources may be allocated to the individual computing nodes 101.1'-101.n' (local or remote computing systems) and data may be distributed to the various computing nodes 101.1'-101.n' to perform tasks. Thus, in a distributed system environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. One computing node 101' is expanded to provide an overview of the components present in the computing node 101'. In this example, the computing node 101' has the same components as described in connection with FIG. 3a.

[0082] FIG. 3c illustrates an example embodiment of a discrete computing environment 103. As used herein, "discrete computing" may refer to any computing that utilizes multiple computing resources. Such utilization may be achieved through virtualization of physical computing resources. An example of discrete computing is cloud computing. "Cloud computing" may refer to a model that enables on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services). When discrete, a cloud computing environment may be distributed internally within an organization and / or across multiple organizations. In this example, the discrete cloud computing environment 103 may include the following computing resources: mobile devices 114, applications 116, databases 118, data storage 120, and servers 122. The cloud computing environment 103 may be deployed as a public cloud 124, a private cloud 126, or a hybrid cloud 128. The private cloud 124 is owned by an organization, and only members of that organization with appropriate access may utilize the private cloud 126, and data within the private cloud may be at least confidential. In contrast, data stored in a public cloud 126 may be open to anyone on the Internet. A hybrid cloud 128 may be a combination of both a private cloud 124 and a public cloud 126, allowing some data to be kept private while other data is made public.

[0083] 1 and 2, the battery or battery component identifiers provided by the identification elements 12, 14, 32, 34 may be processed at least in part in a distributed computing environment. The battery or battery component identifiers may be configured to access battery or battery component data, such as material data or material composition data.

[0084] Figure 3d shows an example environment for making data accessible according to standards set by the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA; e.g., IDS Reference Architecture Version 3.0 April 2019) or the W3C (Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0, Core architecture, data model, and representations according to W3C Proposed Recommendation 03 August 2021). Such an implementation helps make data associated with decentralized identifiers from material providers accessible to data consumers.

[0085] The at least partially decentralized structure based on the distributed identifiers enables novel methods, apparatus, systems, computer elements, computer executable instructions, and their use in the battery recycling process described below.

[0086] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of ID-based data for at least one battery component, ID-based battery passport data, and an ID manager.

[0087] The ID may be a decentralized ID (DID). The ID-based battery passport may be a DID document associated with the DID. The ID-based owner data may be associated with at least one battery component, such as a battery material, a battery cell, a battery cell pack, or a battery. The ID-based battery component data may include an ID associated with at least one battery component, such as a battery material, a battery cell, a battery cell pack, or a battery, and may include an authentication mechanism. The ID-based battery component data may include battery data electronically associated with a physical entity of the at least one battery component. In this context, electronically associated may refer to data stored in a repository or wallet of the producer. Such data may be securely stored and / or managed on a system associated with the production facility, such as an organizational server or a client device. The ID-based battery component data may include a DID, a private key, and a public key. The ID-based battery component data may be owned and managed by at least one producer of at least one battery component. At least one producer of at least one battery component may own and manage an ID associated with at least one battery component as a DID entity, and a private key and public key pair associated with the DID. The DID may be understood as an identifier, and authentication information may be associated or uniquely linked to such identifier.

[0088] The DID entity may be at least one component of a battery, including a raw material, an intermediate product, a component, a component assembly, or a final product. The DID entity may be a raw material, an electrode active material, a battery cell, a battery cell pack, a battery, or any combination thereof. The DID owner may be a supply chain participant or a manufacturer, such as a chemical manufacturer, that produces a chemical. The DID owner may be an upstream participant in the supply chain of a chemical manufacturer, such as a supplier that supplies a raw material chemical or a precursor to a chemical. The DID owner may be a downstream participant in the supply chain of a chemical manufacturer, such as a customer that consumes a chemical to produce an intermediate product, a component, a component assembly, or a final product. The DID owner may be any participant in the supply chain, including a chemical supplier, an intermediate chemical manufacturer, an intermediate component manufacturer, a component manufacturer, a component assembly manufacturer, an electrode active material manufacturer, a battery cell manufacturer, a battery cell pack manufacturer, a battery manufacturer, or a final product manufacturer.

[0089] The DID may be any identifier associated with the DID entity and / or the DID owner. Preferably, the identifier is unique to the DID entity and / or the DID owner. The identifier may be unique at least within the scope in which the DID is expected to be used. The identifier may be a locally or globally unique identifier for any participant in the supply chain, including at least one component of the battery, including raw materials, intermediate products, components, component assemblies, or final products or their aggregates, a chemical manufacturer producing a chemical, an upstream participant in the chemical manufacturer's supply chain, a downstream participant in the chemical manufacturer's supply chain or their aggregates, a raw material chemical supplier, an intermediate chemical manufacturer, an intermediate part manufacturer, a component manufacturer, a component assembly manufacturer, or a final product manufacturer or their aggregates.

[0090] A DID may be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). A DID may be a random string of numbers and letters to enhance security. In one embodiment, a DID may be a string of 128 letters and numbers, such as a method-specific did, for example, scheme did:method name:did:example:ebfeb1f712ebc6f1c276e12ec21. DIDs may be decentralized, independent of centralized third-party management systems, and under the control of the DID owner.

[0091] The battery passport as a DID document 16 may be associated with a DID. Thus, the battery passport 16 may include a reference to a DID associated with the DID entity described by the DID document. The DID document 16 may include authentication information, such as a public key. The public key may be used by a third party entity authorized by the DID owner / subject 14 to access information and data owned by the DID owner / subject 14. The public key may also be used to verify that the DID owner 14 actually owns or controls the DID. The DID document 16 may include authentication information, authorization information, for example, to authorize a third party entity to read the DID document or parts of the DID document 16, without giving the third party the right to prove ownership of the DID.

[0092] The battery passport may include one or more representations that digitally link to product data or chemical product data, for example, by a service endpoint. The service endpoint may include a network address at which a service operates on behalf of the DID owner. In particular, the service endpoint may point to a service of the DID owner that provides access to the battery data. Such services may include services that read or analyze the battery data. The battery data may include chemical product declaration data, chemical product safety data, certificate of analysis data, emissions data, product carbon impact trace data, product environmental impact trace data, chemical product specification data, product information, technical application data, production data, material composition data, recycled content data, or combinations thereof.

[0093] The battery passport 16 may include various other information, such as metadata that specifies when the battery passport 16 was created, when it was last modified, and / or when it expired, or when at least one component of the battery was manufactured or shipped.

[0094] The DID and the battery passport may be associated with a data registry node, such as a centralized data service system or a distributed data service system, such as the distributed ledger or blockchain 10. Possible blockchain systems include Quorum, Hyperledger Fabric, etc. The discrete ledger or blockchain 10 may be used to store a representation of the DID 14 that points to the battery passport 16. The representation of the DID may be stored in discrete computing nodes of the discrete ledger or blockchain 10. For example, a DID hash may be stored in multiple computing nodes of the discrete ledger 10 and may point to the location of the battery passport 16. In some embodiments, the battery passport 16 may be stored in the discrete ledger. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the battery passport 16 may be stored in a data storage (not shown) associated with the discrete ledger or blockchain 10.

[0095] The discrete ledger or blockchain 10 may be any distributed, discrete network that includes various computing nodes that communicate with each other. For example, the discrete ledger 10 may include a first discrete computing node 12.1, a second discrete computing node 12.2, a third discrete computing node 12.3, and any number of additional discrete computing nodes, as shown at 12.4, 12.5. The discrete ledger or blockchain 10 may operate according to any known standard or method for discrete ledgers. Examples of conventional discrete ledgers that correspond to the discrete ledger or blockchain 10 include, but are not limited to, Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.

[0096] FIG. 5 illustrates another example of ID-based data for at least one battery component, ID-based battery passport data, and an ID manager.

[0097] The example of FIG. 5 is essentially similar to the example of FIG. 4. The example of FIG. 5 is certificate-based using a central ID manager. The ID-based certificate data may include authentication data of the certificate owner and the certificate issuer. For example, a cryptographic signature from the issuer may bind the data owner's public key to the ID. The identifier may be a locally or globally unique identifier of at least one component of the battery, including at least one component of the battery (including raw materials, intermediate products, components, component assemblies, or end products, or a collection thereof); a chemical manufacturer producing the chemical, an upstream participant in the chemical manufacturer's supply chain, a downstream participant in the chemical manufacturer's supply chain, or a combination thereof; a raw material chemical supplier, an intermediate chemical manufacturer, a component manufacturer, a component assembly manufacturer, or an end product manufacturer, or a combination thereof. The identity subject may be at least one component of the battery, including raw materials, intermediate products, components, component assemblies, or end products. The identity subject may be raw materials, electrode active materials, battery cells, battery cell packs, batteries, or any combination thereof. The identity subject may be a supply chain participant or manufacturer, such as a chemical manufacturer producing the chemical. An ID Owner can be an upstream participant in a chemical producer's supply chain, such as a supplier that provides raw chemicals or precursors to produce a chemical. An ID Owner can be a downstream participant in a chemical producer's supply chain, such as a consumer that consumes chemicals to produce intermediate products, components, component assemblies, or final products. An ID Owner can be any participant in the supply chain, including raw chemical suppliers, intermediate chemicals, intermediate part manufacturers, component manufacturers, component assembly manufacturers, and electrode active materials.

[0098] The ID may be a unique ID (e.g., a UID) as described in connection with the DID of FIG. 2. The certificate may be an X.509 certificate, such as X509v3. The identity-based passport data may be associated with a data source of the data owner. The identity-based passport data may include endpoints associated with the identity, authentication data, and battery data. Such endpoints may include any digital representation that connects to a data source. The data source may provide or provide access to the battery data.

[0099] In this certificate-based example, the identity-based battery passport data includes one or more certificates associated with the data owner. The certificates may be associated with an identity manager, such as a certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service that provides dynamic attribute tokens (e.g., OAuth access tokens). The information required to validate the certificates is provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and / or the dynamic provisioning service. For example, in the April 2019 IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0, a data owner, a certificate authority (CA), a connector associated with a dynamic attribute provisioning service (DAPS), and a connector associated with a data consumer service are used to validate the identity prior to the execution of the data exchange (not shown). For this purpose, such connectors include one or more certificates, such as an X.509 certificate. In this manner, the connector possesses a unique identifier embedded in an X.509 certificate that identifies the connector instance.

[0100] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a manufacturing facility that produces at least one component of a battery associated with a battery passport.

[0101] The manufacturing facility shown in FIG. 6 can manufacture at least one component of a battery. The manufacturing facility can manufacture an electrode active material, such as an anode active material or a cathode active material. The manufacturing facility can include one or more production plants. For example, a production facility for manufacturing an electrode active material, such as a cathode active material, can include at least one precursor electrode active material production plant, such as at least one precursor cathode active material (PCAM) plant for processing a transition metal into a precursor, such as a transition metal carbonate, oxide, or hydroxide, and at least one cathode active material (CAM) plant for processing a precursor, such as a transition metal carbonate, oxide, or hydroxide, into a cathode active material. In other embodiments, the production facility can manufacture a battery cell, a battery pack, a battery, or an end product including a battery.

[0102] The physical inputs to the production facility may include materials such as raw materials, intermediate materials, or components that may be assembled. The raw materials may be virgin or recycled raw materials. In the case of the cathode active material, the raw materials such as metals such as cobalt, lithium, copper, or nickel may be virgin or recycled materials. The physical inputs to the production facility may include individual battery components such as battery cells, battery packs, batteries, etc. that may be assembled.

[0103] The physical input may be associated with a distributed identifier, as described in the context of Figures 4, 5, 11, 12, 13. The physical input may be registered with the production facility. The registration may include providing a distributed identifier associated with the physical input. The providing of the distributed identifier may include reading a physical identifier element physically connected to the physical input, as described in the context of Figures 1 or 2. The providing of the distributed identifier may include accessing a database containing the distributed identifiers and obtaining the distributed identifier associated with the physical input.

[0104] Based on the provided distributed identifier, battery data associated with such distributed identifier may be accessed. Access may be granted through authentication and authorization based on authentication and authorization information associated with the distributed identifier. Based on the distributed identifier, battery data such as chemical product declaration data, chemical product safety data, analytical data certificate, emission data, product carbon impact data, product environmental impact data, chemical product specification data, product information, technical application data, production data, performance data, quality data, material composition data, recycled content data, or combinations thereof may be accessed. The battery data may be accessed via a data service associated with each distributed identifier and requesting access to the battery data controlled by a physical input data owner. The data owner may be a producer of the physical input. The data service may include computer executable instructions that operate at least in part in the distributed computing environment. Such computer executable instructions may be based on authentication information, authorization information, and / or a Json Web Token (JWT) that includes a digital representation that points to the battery data or a portion thereof. The digital representation may include an endpoint for data exchange or sharing (resource endpoint) or an endpoint for service interaction (service endpoint) that is uniquely identified via a communication protocol. A digital representation of the battery data or a portion thereof may be uniquely associated with the distributed identifier. The battery data may be used in a manufacturing process in a production facility.

[0105] The production facility may produce a physical output based on one or more physical inputs. The physical output of the production facility may be associated with a physical identifier. The physical output of the production facility may be physically connected to a physical identifier element as described in the context of Figures 1 and 2. The physical identifier may be assigned to identifier information associated with the distributed identifier. For such assignment, the physical identifier element may be read or a database including the physical identifier may be accessed. A request to provide a distributed identifier may be initiated to assign the physical identifier to the distributed identifier. In this manner, the distributed identifier may be assigned to the physical output. Providing the distributed identifier may include accessing a database including the distributed identifier and associated information, such as authentication information. Providing the distributed identifier may include accessing a distributed service to provide the distributed identifier and associated information, such as authentication information. In response to the request, a battery passport may be generated that includes the distributed identifier and data related to battery data of at least one component of the battery. The data related to the battery data may include a representation, such as a pointer or link, to the battery data. The distributed identifier may be associated with data related to the battery data of the physical output. The decentralized identifier may further be associated, assigned, or linked to the decentralized identifier of the physical input. The battery passport may be provided to the decentralized network for access by other participants or producers of the network. In this way, the chain of materials from input to output can be tracked and made available for further manufacturing steps without exposing the battery data in an uncontrolled way.

[0106] The above process steps may be executed via an operating system of the production facility. In this embodiment, the operating system may include a collector configured to collect battery data and / or physical identifiers as described above. The collector may be configured to collect battery data associated with components of the battery or associated with the production of components of the battery, the components of the battery being connected to or including physical identifiers. The operating system may include an ID reader, among others, configured to provide a physical ID of the physical input or output as described above. The system may further include an assigner configured to assign a decentralized identifier and associated information to the physical output as described above. The operating system may further include an ID provider configured to provide a decentralized identifier and associated information as described above.

[0107] FIG. 7 illustrates another example of a production facility that produces at least one component of a battery associated with a battery passport.

[0108] The process steps described in the context of FIG. 6 may be executed via an operating system of the production facility through interaction with an assigner, collector, or reader, or ID provider. In this embodiment, the operating system may be communicatively connected to the production facility and the assigner, collector, ID reader, or ID provider. The operating system may be configured to provide battery data from the production facility. The operating system may include a collector configured to provide battery data from the production facility. The operating system may include an ID reader configured to read a physical identifier element physically connected to a physical input or output. The assigner may be configured to assign a distributed identifier and associated information to a physical identifier of the physical output, as described above in the context of FIG. 6. The ID provider may be configured to provide a distributed identifier and associated information, as described above in the context of FIG. 6. The ID reader may be configured to provide a physical identifier of the physical input or output, as described above in the context of FIG. 6. The assigner, collector, ID reader, and / or ID provider may be configured as distributed services or applications running over a distributed network.

[0109] Figures 6 and 7 show only two embodiments and any combination of the system components shown in Figures 6 and 7 may be possible. For example, the ID reader may be configured as part of the operating system, while the ID provider and assigner may not be configured as part of the operating system.

[0110] Figures 8 to 10 show examples of tracking materials in the production of a battery, from raw materials, through the electrode active material and battery, to the final product. Figure 8 shows an example of tracking materials specifically in the production of the electrode active material.

[0111] In the manufacture of electrode active materials, raw materials may be provided as physical inputs. The raw materials may include transition metals such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, etc. The raw materials may include virgin or recycled materials. The raw materials may be associated with a distributed identifier. The distributed identifier may be associated with a digital twin of the raw materials. The distributed identifier may be associated with raw material data such as a tag of the virgin or recycled material, material properties related to environmental impact, or material properties related to origin.

[0112] The production of electrode active materials may include a two-step process: 1) production of precursor materials, 2) production of electrode active materials. To produce precursor materials, raw materials may be used as physical inputs. The precursor production operating system may access data related to the raw materials based on a distributed identifier, such as from a raw material provider. Such data may be used to operate the production. For example, if the raw materials are recycled materials, a production step of purifying the recycled material may be included. For example, if the raw materials are virgin materials, the purification step may be omitted. The precursor materials may be formed by co-precipitating raw materials, such as transition metals, as carbonates, oxides, or preferably basic or non-basic hydroxides. The production data from the precursor production may be stored and / or associated with the distributed identifier.

[0113] In a second step, precursor material is provided and an electrode active material can be produced. The precursor material can include precursors produced by a precursor production. The precursor material can include recycled precursor material or precursor material produced by a different entity. Such precursor material is associated with a distributed identifier via which data related to the precursor material can be accessible.

[0114] The precursor may be mixed with a lithium source, such as LiOH, LhO, U2CO3, and calcined (fired) at high temperatures. The lithium salt may be used as a hydrate or in a dehydrated form. Calcination (also called baking), commonly referred to as thermal or heat treatment of the precursor, may be carried out at temperatures ranging from 600 to 1000°C. The heat treatment may be carried out in a heating zone of an oven or kiln. During the heat treatment, a solid-state reaction takes place to form the electrode active material. The electrode active material may be packaged, for example, in powder form.

[0115] The produced and packaged electrode active material may be assigned a distributed identifier and associated information, as shown in Figures 4, 5, 11, 12, and 13. The packaged electrode active material may include a physical identifier element, such as, for example, a QR code, physically attached to the package. Such a physical identifier element may be assigned to a distributed identifier. The assignment of the physical identifier element and the distributed identifier may be performed via an ID generator / assigner running locally on the distributed system and / or on the discrete system.

[0116] For example, the packaging line may include a detector that detects a physical identifier on each package. Based on such recognition, the electrode active material production operating system may request provision of a distributed identifier, which may be assigned to the physical identifier. In response to the request, a battery passport may be generated that includes the distributed identifier and data related to the electrode active material. For such generation, data related to the electrode active material that was recorded before and / or during production of the electrode active material may be collected or accessed. Such data may be provided by the electrode material production operating system or a storage environment connected to the electrode material production operating system. This may include data collected and stored during precursor material production.

[0117] The data related to the electrode active material may include identifiers of raw materials used in the production of the electrode active material. The data related to the electrode active material may include data related to raw materials accessible via the raw material's distributed identifier. The data related to the electrode active material may include data related to the material composition of the electrode active material. The material composition data may be related to the chemical composition of the electrode active material. The material composition data may define at least one component of the chemical composition of the electrode active material, such as a transition metal-containing component. The material composition data may be associated with a positive electrode active material. In such an embodiment, the material composition may define the chemical composition of the positive electrode active material. Examples include lithium nickel manganese (NCM type), such as lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (LiNiCoMnO2), lithium iron phosphate (LPF type), such as lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4 / C), lithium nickel manganese spinel (LiNi 0.5 Mn 1.5 O4) Lithium nickel manganese (LMNO type), lithium nickel cobalt aluminum (NCA type) such as lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (LiNiCoAlO2), lithium manganese (LMO type) such as lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2O4), lithium cobalt (LCO type) such as lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2), or a combination thereof.

[0118] The data related to the electrode active material may include data related to characteristics related to environmental impacts, such as CO2 impact footprint and recycled content. For example, the data related to the electrode active material may define the recycled content of cobalt, lead, nickel, and lithium. Such recycled content may be directly associated with the distribution identifier of the electrode active material, or indirectly associated with the distribution identifier of the electrode active material, for example, via the distribution identifier of raw material or precursor material. The data related to the electrode active material may include data related to production conditions provided by the operating system of the electrode active material production. The data related to the electrode active material may include data related to the operating conditions provided by the operating system of the electrode active material production. The data related to the electrode active material may include data related to the producer, such as producer name, producer brand, or producer identifier. The data related to the electrode active material may include data related to the product, such as product name, product brand, product identifier.

[0119] Figure 9 shows an example of material tracking in the production of a battery cell.

[0120] For the production of a battery cell, different materials may be provided as physical inputs from material providers. The electrode active material may be associated with a distributed identifier and associated information as shown in Figures 4, 5, 11, 12, 13. The distributed identifier may be associated with data related to the electrode active material or the digital twin of the electrode active material. The distributed identifier may be associated with the electrode active material data as described in the context of Figure 8.

[0121] Electrode manufacturing may include multiple steps based on the input materials. The input materials may be materials such as graphite, conductive carbon black, solvent, binder, and one or more additives for the positive electrode. The input materials may be materials such as LMNO, carbon black, solvent, and one or more binders for the negative electrode. The electrode production operating system may initiate the production process based on the operating parameters of the different process steps. The production process may include equipment for dry mixing the active material, additives such as carbon black and binder, equipment for wet dispersion, adding solvent, dispersing and homogenizing into a slurry, equipment for coating the slurry on one or both sides of foils (copper for the negative electrode and aluminum for the positive electrode), equipment for drying, equipment for calendaring and / or slitting to produce the electrode material, for example in the form of a roller electrode material.

[0122] The electrode production operating system can access data relating to the electrode active materials or raw materials, for example based on distributed identifiers from suppliers of the electrode active materials or raw materials. Such data can be used to manipulate production.

[0123] Produced and packaged electrodes may be assigned a distributed identifier. Packaged electrodes may include an identifier element, such as a QR code, physically attached to the package. Such a physical identifier element may be assigned a distributed identifier. The assignment of physical identifiers and distributed identifiers may be performed through an ID generator running locally on the distributed and / or discrete systems.

[0124] For example, the packaging line may include a detector that detects the physical identifier of each package. Based on such recognition, the electrode production operating system may request to provide a distributed identifier assigned to the physical identifier. In response to the request, a battery passport may be generated that includes the distributed identifier and data related to the electrode active material. For such generation, data related to the electrode that was recorded before and / or during the production of the electrode may be collected or accessed. Such data may be provided by the electrode material production operating system or a storage environment that is connected to the electrode production operating system.

[0125] The data relating to the electrode may include a distribution identifier for the electrode active material or for raw materials used to produce the electrode active material. The data relating to the electrode may include data relating to the electrode active material or raw materials, for example accessible via a distribution identifier for the electrode active material or raw materials.

[0126] To produce a battery or battery cell, electrodes and other components may be provided as physical inputs. A component, such as an electrode active material, may be associated with a distributed identifier. The distributed identifier may be associated with a digital twin of the component, such as the electrode active material. The distributed identifier may be associated with a component, such as electrode active material data, as described in the context of FIG. 8.

[0127] Battery or cell assembly and finishing may include multiple steps based on physical inputs. The input materials may be electrodes, separators, electrolyte, and packaging materials for the negative electrode. The cell production operating system may initiate the production process based on the operating parameters of the different process steps. The production process may include equipment for electrode separation and stacking, equipment for electrode and separator packaging, equipment for electrolyte filling, equipment for degassing, and equipment for quality control and testing. Data collected during production may be stored.

[0128] The battery or cell production operating system can access data related to the physical inputs, for example based on distributed identifiers from electrode active material or raw material suppliers. Such data can be used to steer production.

[0129] Produced and packaged cells may be assigned a decentralized identifier and associated information as shown in Figures 4, 5, 11, 12, and 13. The packaged cells or batteries may include an identifier element, such as a QR code, physically attached to the package. Such a physical identifier element may be assigned a decentralized identifier. The assignment of the physical identifier and the decentralized identifier may be performed via an ID generator running locally on the distributed and / or discrete systems.

[0130] For example, the packaging line may include a detector that detects the physical identifier on each package. Based on such recognition, the cell production operating system may request to provide a distributed identifier assigned to the physical identifier. In response to this request, a battery passport may be generated that includes the distributed identifier and data related to the cell or battery. For such generation, data related to the cell that was recorded before and / or during the production of the cell or battery may be collected or accessed. Such data may be provided by a storage environment connected to the cell or battery production operating system or the electrode production operating system.

[0131] The data associated with the cell or battery may include a distributed identifier for the electrode active material or a raw material used to produce the electrode active material. The data associated with the cell may include data associated with the electrode active material or raw material accessible, for example, via the distributed identifier for the electrode active material or raw material.

[0132] FIG. 10 shows an example of material tracking in the production of an end product such as a car or power tool with the battery produced as shown in FIG.

[0133] Various components may be provided as inputs to the production of the final product. The battery may be associated with a distributed identifier. The distributed identifier may be associated with a digital twin of the battery and associated information. The distributed identifier may be associated with cell data as described in the context of FIG. 8 or 9.

[0134] The manufacturing may include multiple steps based on individual input materials, which may be any individual components.

[0135] The production operating system can access data relating to the battery, electrode active material, or raw materials based on, for example, a distributed identifier from a supplier of the electrode active material or raw materials. Such data can be used to operate production.

[0136] The final product may be assigned a decentralized identifier. The final product may include an identifier element, such as a physically attached QR code. Such a physical identifier element may be assigned a decentralized identifier. The assignment of the physical identifier and the decentralized identifier may be performed through an ID generator running locally on the decentralized and / or discrete systems.

[0137] 9 to 10 are merely illustrative examples. Different embodiments are possible for ID generation and association of the digital twin or battery to any component or end product.

[0138] 11 to 13 show examples of battery passports of different embodiments for connecting decentralized identities and related information along the battery value chain.

[0139] FIG. 11 illustrates one example of tracking materials in the production of a car based on a single distributed identifier associated with each production output or component of a battery. The distributed identifiers may be associated with raw materials, intermediate materials such as electrode active materials, battery cells, batteries, and cars with batteries. The IDs may be provided by the producer of the first or last physical entity. Data related to such physical entities may be associated with such a single ID and made accessible to other supply chain participants via a distributed network. The connection of the physical entities may be provided via the single ID and the associated data. The IDs and the associated data may be hashed individually and / or hashed in connection. For example, each data set provided in a JWT file may be hashed and the combination of hashes may also be hashed. Such hashes may be provided in the distributed network. In this way, any supply chain participant with access to such data can check for corruption of the data by hashing the received data associated with the ID and matching the hashes.

[0140] FIG. 12 shows another example of tracking materials in the production of a car based on multiple distributed identifiers associated with a car identifier. A set of IDs may be generated at each production step along the value chain, and the IDs may be linked in a hierarchical order that orders the embedding. The connection of physical entities may be provided through a hierarchy of IDs and associated data. The IDs and associated data may be hashed individually or in conjunction. For example, each data set provided in a JWT file may be hashed, and the combination of hashes may be hashed. Such hashes may be provided in a distributed network. In this way, any supply chain participant with access to such data may check for corruption of the data by hashing the received data associated with the ID and matching the hashes.

[0141] FIG. 13 shows another example of tracking materials in the production of a car based on multiple distributed identifiers associated with a car identifier. A set of IDs may be generated at each production step along the value chain, and the IDs may be linked but completely separate. Data related to the physical entities may be associated with a separate ID for each physical entity and made accessible to other supply chain participants through the distributed network. The connection of the physical entities may be provided through the separate IDs and the associated data. The separate IDs and the associated data may be hashed individually or in conjunction. The hashed connection may provide the connection of the physical entities in the supply chain. For example, each data set provided in the JWT file may be hashed and the combination of hashes may be hashed. Such hashes may be provided in the distributed network. In this way, supply chain participants accessing such data may check for corruption of the data by hashing the received data associated with the IDs and matching the hashes. Furthermore, the connected hashes may provide a way to track the physical entities through the supply chain.

[0142] The embodiments illustrated in Figures 11-13 are merely examples, and multiple combinations of direct and indirect ID connections via hashing, linking, or other mechanisms are possible.

[0143] FIG. 14 illustrates one example of using one or more battery passports in the context of a supply chain having at least two producers.

[0144] In the example of Figure 14, the producer may be a cathode active material producer. This is merely an example, and the embodiments described herein may be equally valid for any other material producer in the battery supply chain.

[0145] Cathode active material producers can store environmental impact data, such as carbon footprint data. Cathode active material producers can store recycling data from production, such as recycled content of cobalt, nickel, lithium, lead, etc. Cathode active material producers can store data related to manufacturing, such as production date, production location, batch number, producer ID, etc. Cathode active material producers can store data related to material makeup or chemical composition.

[0146] A cathode active material producer may provide access to data related to electrode active materials that the cathode active material producer has provided to a battery producer. Such data sharing may be performed via a distributed network, where distributed data providers may provide data and data consumers may consume data directly or indirectly.

[0147] To access data related to the electrode active material, the battery producer service component may use a public portion of encryption information, such as the public keys of the electrode active material producer and the battery producer. Based on the encryption information and the authentication protocol, the access by the battery producer service component may be authenticated. In a further step, the battery producer service component may request access to data related to the electrode active material or a subset of such data. The data or the subset may be linked to authorization rules. Based on such authorization rules, the access by the battery producer service component may be allowed or denied. If access is allowed, the data may be transferred or processed from the battery producer service component as provided by the electrode active material producer service component.

[0148] In this way, a secure and controlled data sharing can be achieved. In particular, battery data can be shared with selected participants of the network while the data remains under the control of the data owner. Battery data, including material composition, can be made available to producer participants along the value chain. This allows for attribute tracking and aggregation and appropriate processing in production, testing or quality control.

[0149] 15 through 17 show examples of providing access to data via one or more battery passports.

[0150] Through the distributed setup described above, different supply chain participants or producers to the end consumer can access data from the supply chain participants or producers. Such access to data may include forwarding the data to the requester, processing the data, and forwarding the processing results to the requester. The example in FIG. 15 shows the data that may be accessed based on the distributed identifier of the car or battery. Material data may be provided from different material providers that supplied materials for the production of the battery or car. Environmental impact data may be provided in aggregate from different material suppliers that were involved in the production of the battery or car. Lifetime data may be provided as collected during the use of the end product.

[0151] The example of FIG. 16 shows material data such as electrode active material data provided by an electrode active material producer, electrolyte data provided by an electrolyte producer, and housing data provided by a housing producer.

[0152] The example in Figure 17 shows environmental data such as total emissions data aggregated from data provided by producers of car and battery components, production emissions data provided by producers of car and battery components, and recycled content data provided by producers of car and battery components.

Claims

1. 1. An apparatus for producing components of a battery associated with a battery passport, the apparatus comprising: a collector configured to collect battery data associated with the components of the battery, the components of the battery including a physical identifier; an assigner configured to assign the physical identifier to a distributed identifier for generating the battery passport associated with the component of the battery being produced; a battery passport generator configured to generate the battery passport by receiving a request to provide at least the distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least the components of the battery, and generating the battery passport in response to the request, the battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least the components of the battery; An apparatus comprising:

2. 1. An apparatus for generating a battery passport, the apparatus comprising: one or more computing nodes; and one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions thereon that are configured, when executed by the one or more computing nodes, to cause the apparatus to perform the following steps: receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with battery data for at least one component of the battery; generating, in response to the request, the battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least one component of the battery; A device that is.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein generating the battery passport comprises providing the distributed identifier associated with a physical instance of at least one component of the battery.

4. The device of claim 1 or 2, wherein the distributed identifier is assigned to a physical identifier connected to at least one component of the battery.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein an identifier element comprising the physical identifier is physically attached to at least one of the components of the battery.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the battery data associated with the distribution identifier includes raw material data.

7. 3. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the battery data associated with the distributed identifier comprises material composition data of at least one component of the battery, preferably the battery data associated with the distributed identifier comprises chemical composition data of an electrode active material.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the battery data associated with the distributed identifier includes data relating to characteristics of battery materials and / or the distributed identifier is associated with data relating to characteristics of battery materials.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the distributed identifier is associated with a material or physical component of the battery whose material composition the battery data or material composition data defines.

10. 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the distributed identifier is associated with battery data of a first component, the battery data of the first component comprising battery data of at least a second component of the battery, the battery data of at least the second component defining a material composition.

11. 1. A computer-implemented method for producing components of a battery associated with a battery passport, the method comprising: collecting battery data associated with the components of the battery, the components of the battery having physical identifiers; assigning the physical identifier to a distributed identifier for generating the battery passport associated with the component of the battery being produced; receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with battery data of at least the components of the battery, and in response to the request, generating the battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least the components of the battery; The method includes:

12. 1. A computer-implemented method for generating a battery passport, the method comprising: receiving a request to provide a distributed identifier associated with battery data for at least one component of the battery; generating, in response to the request, the battery passport including the distributed identifier and data related to the battery data of at least one of the components of the battery; The method includes:

13. A method of using a battery passport generated according to the method of claim 11 or 12 or by the device of claim 1 or 2 for further processing of at least one of the components of the battery and / or the battery associated with the battery passport.

14. A battery component and / or a battery associated with the battery passport, the battery passport including one or more distributed identifiers and data related to the battery data, generated according to a method of claim 11 or 12 or by an apparatus of claim 1 or 2.

15. A battery passport comprising one or more distributed identifiers and data relating to said battery data, said battery passport being generated according to a method according to claim 11 or 12 or by an apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.

16. A computer program element having instructions for performing the steps of the method according to claim 11 or 12 when executed on one or more computing nodes, or for execution by an apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.

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