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Analysis of institutional authors

Martínez-Hernando MpAuthorBolonio DAuthorOrtega MfAuthorLlamas JfAuthorGarcía-Martínez MjCorresponding Author

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Material flow analysis and regional greenhouse gas emissions associated to permanent magnets and batteries used in electric vehicles

Publicated to:Science Of The Total Environment. 904 166368- - 2023-12-15 904(), DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166368

Authors: Martinez-Hernando, Maria-Pilar; Bolonio, David; Ortega, Marcelo F; Llamas, Juan F; Garcia-Martinez, Maria- Jesus

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Abstract

Clean technologies are rapidly increasing in the last decade. In the transport sector, market share of global electric car sales has changed from 0.0 % in 2010 to 3.2 % (2.1million) in 2020, and predictions show that sales could reach near 30 % in 2030. This drastic change is mainly encouraged by environmental goals set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) expressed in CO2-eq, not emitted by electric vehicles (EVs) during the use phase. However, clean technologies might cause other impacts during manufacture and, while clearly reduce the dependency on oil, can increase the dependency on other materials. In this context, the objectives of our work are quantifying the critical raw materials needed by permanents magnets and batteries of EVs (neodymium, lithium, and cobalt); their supply risk, performing a material flow analysis; and studying their environmental impacts using the methodology “Environmentally-Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis”. This methodology is used to quantify the produced impacts and the country where the impacts are being produced, in contrast to conventional methodologies that only calculate global impacts. Therefore, environmental impacts are estimated considering different scenarios, based on environmental objectives of the European Union and China. In most scenarios China shows a key role in mining and processing of metals, being the country where major impacts are produced. Obtained results are useful to assess which environmental proposals are more effective to reduce the environmental impact of EVs and set the ground to understand the geostrategic importance of key metals used for EVs manufacture.

Keywords

carboncrmelectric vehiclesenergylcamfaneodymiumsystemCrmElectric vehiclesInput-outputLcaLife-cycle assessmentMfa

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Science Of The Total Environment due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 31/358, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Environmental Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 3.81, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-03, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 6
  • Scopus: 8
  • Google Scholar: 9
  • OpenCitations: 5

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-03:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 51.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 48 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 12.35.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (MARTINEZ HERNANDO, MARIA DEL PILAR) and Last Author (GARCIA MARTINEZ, MARIA JESUS).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been GARCIA MARTINEZ, MARIA JESUS.