Battery Metals

A recent analysis by market research firm IDTechEx identifies the availability – or lack thereof – of hydrogen fuel and refuelling infrastructure as the main challenge blocking the future widespread use of fuel cell vehicles.

“The lack of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure has hindered fuel cell vehicle rollout for at least the past decade,” the report reads. “However, several regions, including Japan, Korea, Germany, California, and China, are supporting initiatives to build hydrogen refuelling station infrastructure that could see this change.”

In the view of the experts at IDTechEx, although fuel cell powertrains hold a range advantage today, the continued wait for a point of viable commercial deployment means rapidly improving battery powertrains are eroding this advantage.

“The long-range niche for fuel cell vehicles will continue to shrink the longer the wait for infrastructure and cost-effective, low-carbon hydrogen fuel. 2023 is likely to be a difficult year for fuel cell vehicles, with high gas prices worldwide leading to high grey hydrogen prices,” the document states.

Despite this state of affairs, the market analyst reckons that fuel cell vehicles continue to attract attention and therefore, there is ongoing work to improve the design of fuel cell systems for automotive applications.

“In the truck market, there are several fuel cell models in testing, with the likes of Hyundai, Toyota, Nikola, Hyzon, and Daimler looking to deploy the technology in the not-too-distant future,” the report points out. “In the passenger car market, Toyota and Hyundai continue to be the only manufacturers offering series production FCEV, with their Mirai and Nexo models, respectively. There is plenty of ongoing work to improve the design of fuel cell systems for automotive applications.”

The type of hydrogen

In addition to the lack of infrastructure, the fact that most of the hydrogen fuel used today is the ‘grey’ type, is not playing in favour of the technology.

According to IDTechEx, grey hydrogen offers, at best, a minimal CO2 emission reduction over modern combustion engines as it is produced by steam methane reforming of natural gas.

The analysis mentions that several recent announcements have been made about funding support to produce low-carbon blue and green hydrogen. In September 2022, the EU approved $5.2 billion in public funding for green hydrogen projects, and the US announced plans for a $7 billion investment to establish up to ten regional hydrogen hubs.

“However, at this stage, neither the cheap renewable energy generation resource required to produce cheap green hydrogen nor the carbon capture and storage technologies required for blue hydrogen has been demonstrated at a scale that can deliver low carbon hydrogen with a pump price competitive with diesel, petrol, or electric charging,” the dossier notes. “Development efforts are likely to take considerable time and require significant investment.”

If Denmark is to reach the goal of 1 million electric vehicles on the roads in 2030, the number of charging stations will have to keep up. DTU has created a calculation tool that enables cities and municipalities to analyze how many charge points they will need in the future.

Denmark reached a significant milestone in mid-October—100,000 electric cars on the roads. The amount has almost doubled in a year and increased almost tenfold in a little more than three years when there were only 10,000 electric vehicles. In other words, the development has been supercharged, making Denmark well on its way to reaching the political ambition of one million electric vehicles by 2030 to make road transportation greener.

That makes it essential to expand the charging infrastructure quickly.

“We are looking at a huge increase in electric cars. The more electric cars we have, the more charging stations we need. That is a basic premise for us to be able to reach this number of electric cars,” says Peter Bach Andersen, senior researcher at DTU Wind.

He is the lead on the FUSE project (Frederiksberg Urban Smart Electromobility), which is developing and future-proofing the knowledge for an urban charging infrastructure, and for DTU, he has just created a charge point calculator in collaboration with Hybrid Greentech, Dansk e-Mobilitet, and COWI that cities and municipalities can use to calculate precisely how many charging stations they will need in the future.

Even though four out of five owners of electric cars have the opportunity to charge at home, many public charging stations will still need to be set up in the future to support the transition to electric vehicles.

“The need is going to increase quite fast, and in some places, it will double every two years. So it is important to meet the need here and now, but also think about how the need will change in the future,” says Peter Bach Andersen.

The number of charging stations has grown dramatically in recent years but has been surpassed by the sales of electric cars nonetheless—and if people see owning an electric vehicle as a hassle, progress can quickly be reversed.

“It could halt the number of electric vehicles sold,” says Peter Bach Andersen.

Risk being left behind

According to Elbilviden.dk, there are currently around 7,500 public charge points which covers the need for the current 100,000 electric cars. But the calculation tool shows that in just four years, that need will grow to 26,766. In other words, by 2026, almost 20,000 additional charge points must be installed. By 2030, the demand will require 67,000 charge points if we are to reach one million electric cars.

“That indicates that we have enough charge points for our current needs. But there is no guarantee that we will have enough in five years, and cities risk being left behind if they are not well prepared,” says Peter Bach Andersen.

The charge point calculator allows each city to get a specific number for how many charging stations they are expected to need in the future. And the need will be most significant in urban areas as this is where people need everyday charging from public charging stations to make life as an electric car owner easier.

For instance, Frederiksberg Municipality has an ambitious strategy for electric vehicles where almost all residents live within 250 meters of a charging station. But even though the municipality currently has enough charging stations, the need will continue to rise rapidly in the future and Frederiksberg Municipality states that they expect the calculator to be an excellent addition to their efforts to expand their charging infrastructure.

Power up housing and workplaces

If the charging infrastructure is to keep up with demand, public charging stations alone won’t do it. It will become increasingly necessary to set up charge points in semi-public places, typically on private property, for a specific and limited group of people, such as housing associations and workplaces.

“This is where you can take advantage of the fact that the cars already spend a lot of time being parked. It’s also more convenient than having a fossil-fuel car, as you don’t have to look for a charger, and there is no active waiting time because it takes place at the workplace or home,” says Peter Bach Andersen.

Semi-public chargers are often cheaper to build as they can use slower chargers, as the cars spend more time parked. Therefore, the charge point calculator gives two numbers—one for the total need for charging stations and one for how many must be public. And that makes a lot of sense according to Peter Bach Andersen:

“I doubt we can reach our goals without semi-public charging stations, and either way, it will be costly. At the same time, it can contribute to a well-developed charging network, where charging stations are established in those areas that makes most sense to the owners of electric vehicles and not only in public spaces,” he says.

A survey from Megafon from 2018 shows that up to 60% of the respondents believe, that the public charging infrastructure is insufficient. Thus a great effort must be made to keep up with the development, according to Peter Bach Andersen:

“Many people believe that you can’t have an electric car unless you can charge it at home. We want to demonstrate that is not the case.”

Volkswagen AG has begun searching for a site in Canada where to build its first battery cell factory in North America, a part of the German carmaker’s planned expansion of its electric vehicle (EVs) battery business outside Europe.

Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne signed the document — described as an addendum to a memorandum of understanding inked with VW in August this year — during his visit to Germany.

The search will be headed by Volkswagen’s battery unit, known as PowerCo, and will take into account the availability of enough sources of renewable energy to power the plant.

Ontario and Quebec, Canada’s two largest provinces, already have vast sources of clean power generation, which includes hydroelectric capacity.

The agreement also includes a pledge by PowerCo and Umicore to explore a strategic supply agreement on cathode material for North America.

Belgium’s materials technology and recycling company announced in July a C$1.5 billion ($1.1 billion) cathode and precursor materials manufacturing plant in Ontario, with operations planned to start in 2025.

Automakers from VW to General Motors Co. are exploring different business models as they race to electrify their lineups and catch Tesla, the world’s top seller of electric vehicles. They’re forging partnerships with battery cell makers and mining companies as they try to secure materials and know-how.

The EV industry is picking up more steam with Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) incentives in the US — but a big roadblock to electrification is a lack of domestic EV battery material supply to make production goals attainable.

Trading at a fraction of the prices of nickel, cobalt and high-purity manganese, anode material graphite is an often overlooked part of the EV supply chain. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence sees demand for graphite over the next decade growing at an annual compound rate of 10.5% but supply will lag, it says, expanding at only 5.7% per year and predicting that EVs will become the main source of demand for graphite next year.

While there is currently a need for 200,000 tonnes of graphite to meet current demand, the reality is, the current US supply capability is zero. Its neighbour to the north has already gotten into gear, with graphite operations in Ontario and Quebec. In 2020, Canada’s graphite industry exported C$31.6 million worth of product, according to the NRC.

This is a gap in the market that companies like Graphex Technologies – a midstream company that takes flake graphite from mines and transforms it into anode material for electric cars – are looking to fill.

Graphex Technologies is a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of Graphex Group Limited, a Cayman Island company, which already has a self-contained graphite processing ecosystem in China. Its Graphene division currently produces 10,000 metric tonnes per year of purified spherical graphite at its facility in Heilongjiang Province. Like rare earths, most graphite travels through China, either mined or processed there.

This summer, the company established a Graphex Michigan joint venture when it bought a former automotive plant in Warren in a $75 million investment with plans to turn it into a graphite processing plant.

“We’re expanding and diversifying – and we were on the move for this whole domestication effort before it became fashionable,” Graphex Technologies CEO John DeMaio told MINING.com.

“Our plant will make a dent, but not a big one, so we are looking for strategic partnerships to build multiple plants throughout North America, and that will be a combination of working with mining operations and battery makers – auto makers that may be looking for that captive supply chain,” DeMaio said.

“The administration is looking to domesticate the supply chain and bring in experienced players who are willing to withstand what it takes to build here in the United States,” he said.

“The industry is in flux, all the paradigms have shifted, procurement methodologies are in flux, the technology is not standardized anywhere near like internal combustion used to be and the greater infrastructure is almost non-existent,” DeMaio said. “Disconnect means delays and cost.”

“What we’re doing may not be a first, but it’s a departure from the norm. Everyone’s talking, and we are hoping that as the paradigm shifts, there will be more of a collaborative environment versus a vendor- supplier – offtaker, kind of classic arrangement.”

DeMaio pointed to the need to narrow the gap between legislating and enabling energy projects to actually proceed.

“What I’m seeing is a lot of political will that is not matched by implementation and practicality. For electrification of everything – there hasn’t been follow through,” DeMaio said. “It’s encouraging to see things like the IRA and BLA. Legislation is now gaining momentum.”

Graphex Technologies’ plant in Warren has existing infrastructure, including a 15 Mw power substation. It’s currently in the permitting phase, though DeMaio said the company shaved two years off the development timeline by selecting the former automotive plant.

“Our environmental footprint for that plant is not going to be very heavy,” DeMaio said. “It’s a quick road to production, we are still targeting Q3 of next year to be operational in that spot.”

Australia will play a big role in South Korea’s ambition to lead the electric vehicle batteries market and diversify from China for its battery metals needs, a top South Korean executive said on Wednesday.

Ben Bosung Kim, the managing director for steel giant POSCO in Australia, said the company has already invested around A$5 billion ($3.4 billion) in the country, which covers traditional raw material such as iron ore and coal, and more recently lithium, nickel, graphite and other minerals needed to manufacture electric car batteries.

“Australia and Korea are always complementary and interdependent in terms of Australia’s mining and Korea’s manufacturing,” Ben told Reuters at the sidelines of the Australia-Korea Business Council (AKBC) conference in Sydney.

“It was like that in the past in terms of steelmaking, and it will be for the battery materials in the future,” he said.

The Asian country controls a third of the $46 billion market for electric vehicle batteries but it relies heavily on China which is a key supplier to Korea for electric vehicles.

In recent years, US allies have moved to reduce their dependence on China amid heightened concern about Beijing’s control over the critical minerals sector.

South Korea needs critical mineral supplies, having pledged to become a battery manufacturing powerhouse by 2030 as part of a plan to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

POSCO last year entered into a joint venture deal with Pilbara Minerals Ltd to build a 43,000 tonne lithium hydroxide chemical facility in Gwangyang, South Korea. It also bought a 30% stake in First Quantum Minerals Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Western Australia.

POSCO executives at the conference said that Australia is going to be a critical target for the company for investment into hydrogen projects.

In a presentation, POSCO Executive Vice President and Head of Hydrogen Business, Juik Choo, said the company wants to become a global hydrogen provider with capacity to produce 7 million tonnes by 2050. Part of this plan is to build large-scale hydrogen production base in Australia that can deliver 1 million tonnes by 2040.

Choo said the global race to be the first and largest provider of hydrogen is gaining speed, with the US this year passing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that offers big incentives for hydrogen production.

The Australian government should offer similar incentives so the country can be a leader in global hydrogen exports, he said.

In the quest to be able to store renewable solar and wind energy on the electric grid to be used at times when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, scientists are investigating a number of different types of chemistries for large-scale batteries that could be used for grid storage.

One candidate for this sort of battery chemistry, called an aqueous zinc ion battery (AZIB), has been identified as a promising technology for grid storage that can help maximize the advantages of renewable energy sources. The foundation of affordability and safety of AZIBs relies on the use of zinc, a key sustainable metal, as the anode material in the cell.

Compared to lithium in commercialized lithium-ion batteries, zinc is far more naturally abundant and highly compatible with water, thus allowing for the direct use of cost-effective, nonflammable, aqueous-based electrolytes.

However, in a new study from researchers at the University of Waterloo working as part of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research headquartered at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, scientists have proposed that numerous claims in the open literature have been mistakenly overestimated, and that zinc-ion batteries still face many challenges. A paper based on the study, “Toward practical aqueous zinc-ion batteries for electrochemical energy storage,” appeared in the Aug. 11 online edition of Joule.

“A zinc anode brings high safety and low cost for aqueous zinc-ion batteries because it is stable with most water-based electrolytes,” said University of Waterloo Professor Linda Nazar, who along with her graduate student Chang Li is a lead author of the study. “However, during charge-discharge cycling, zinc tends to grow as random and spiky crystals—called dendrites—which can easily cause a short-circuit when charging batteries. Although many strategies have been reported to solve the zinc dendrite issue, only few of them can address the requirements of practical applications.”

Challenges also remain on the cathode side. According to Nazar, the water molecules in the aqueous-based electrolyte can spontaneously dissociate into hydroxide ions and protons. While the protons compete with the zinc ions in the process of shuttling back and forth into the battery’s cathode materials—a process known as intercalation—the remaining hydroxide ions can combine with the zinc. That reaction results in compounds called layered zinc double hydroxides, which Nazar said precipitate on the cathode surface and “take zinc out of the equation, insulating the surface in a very deleterious side reaction.”

The main question facing zinc batteries, in Nazar’s view, is how to suppress the water activity. The answer, she said, could lie in a non-aqueous/aqueous hybrid electrolyte that can help to sequester the water, preventing its dissociation. “These electrolytes have been shown to be quite effective at ensuring that zinc-ion insertion dominates the chemistry,” she said.

Nazar identified an additional notable drawback to some research involving zinc batteries, asserting that studies that had run the batteries at exceptionally high cycling rates tended to be based on proton insertion much more than zinc intercalation. “Superfast cycling of zinc batteries won’t help in large-scale grid storage,” she said. “We’re trying to set the record straight—cycle only at moderate rates and then do electrolyte engineering to inhibit the water dissociation.”

A paper based on the study, “Toward practical aqueous zinc-ion batteries for electrochemical energy storage,” appeared in the Aug. 11 online edition of Joule.