Battery Metals

General Motors executive John Blanchard called the battery plant proposed for Lordstown “ground zero” for the company’s future in electric vehicles. His remarks came at a rare public meeting held by GM to outline the plan and answer questions.

The proposal is to build the plant on Route 45 in Lordstown, across from the Lordstown Energy Center, on land that abuts what is now Lordstown Motors.

Building the new GM/LG Chem battery plant will be the responsibility of GM executive Branden Brickles, who told a hundred people Thursday night that getting the plant operating by 2022 is a priority.

“We’ve got a lot of people in Detroit that want to put these batteries into a lot of cars as soon as possible,” Brickles said.

The batteries will be made solely for GM vehicles.

When describing the building itself, he called it “deceptively large.” For perspective, they showed how 31 football fields will fit inside the plant.

One concern has been the 66 acres of wetlands on the property and if the Ohio EPA will grant a building permit. GM’s Jim Hartnett explained how 57 of those acres were manmade, created when the land’s previous owner logged the property.

The solution will be to create 130 acres of wetlands elsewhere.

“We’ve identified a site, working with stream and wetland foundation, that’s within the Mahoning River watershed at the north end of Mosquito Creek in a wildlife management area,” Hartnett said.

The GM executives also listened to comments and answered questions, including one from Joann Vernon, whose family has lived on Route 45 since 1790.

“Is all the traffic that goes in and out there going to come out on 45 or are you going to make a road that goes down and comes out at Halleck Young?”

Right now, there are only entrances off of Route 45 and nothing off of Halleck Young.

While there were concerns about the environment and traffic, no one opposed the plant. In fact, one labor leader was thankful.Paragraph

“I can say, from the [Western Reserve Building Trades], we want to say thank you for this project. Well done,” Carlton Ingram said.

The total construction cost of the plant is $2.3 billion.

It’ll create 1,100 jobs and while no exact numbers on wages were mentioned, GM said they would be competitive.

GM workers who took buyouts are eligible to apply.

As lithium-ion batteries become increasingly commonplace — powering everything from cell phones and laptops to electric vehicles and energy storage for renewables such as wind and solar — there is a looming question about what to do when they reach the end of their useful life.

Recycling is an option, although not currently an easy one because of the difficulty of recovering high-value materials. While recycling rates are expected to increase as technology and processes improve, some batteries may have the opportunity to be recovered and reused for another purpose before even reaching the stage of recycling: a second life. 

This is particularly true of electric vehicle batteries, which are largely driving the tremendous growth in demand for lithium-ion batteries overall. Bloomberg NEF forecasts that demand for electric vehicles using lithium-ion battery technology will grow more than 10 fold between 2018 and 2030.

(Source: Bloomberg NEF 2019 Electric Vehicle Outlook) While there may be short-term fluctuations, we continue to expect further decreases in battery prices, falling from $176/kWh at the pack level today to $87/kWh in 2025 and $62/kWh in 2030.

Electric car and bus battery packs are often swapped out when they still have significant life remaining, sometimes up to 70 percent of their initial capacity. This is because vehicles have very high power needs. So while these used batteries may not be suitable for powering another electric vehicle, they may function perfectly well for energy storage at a commercial scale, providing back-up power to an office building or powering telecommunication towers, as several examples. Doing so not only extends the life of these batteries before they are recycled or landfilled but also can increase their overall value.

Several notable electric vehicle manufacturers including Nissan, Renault and Volkswagen are already experimenting with different “second life” options for their batteries.

The challenge lies in the fact that these electric vehicle batteries were designed with one purpose in mind: to power high-performing vehicles over a relatively short lifespan. As these batteries are repurposed for a second life, major technical and regulatory issues need to be overcome.

What if we could design a battery purposely built to start its life in an electric vehicle, transition to providing energy storage for a large renewable energy project and finally be repurposed for back-up?

On the technical side, battery packs typically need to be stripped down to their component cell level, tested for viability and then rebuilt for their new application. This adds significant cost and manufacturing waste.

On the regulatory side, there is legal uncertainty around who is responsible for these second-life batteries. Should a battery fail when it is in its second life — or worse, explode and cause damage to others — is the original manufacturer held liable or has that risk transferred on to a secondary manufacturer who may have been the one to repurpose that battery? Can a warranty be provided for a battery in its second life?

The inherent issue lies in design. Without batteries being intentionally designed for multiple uses from the start, these and other challenges will remain.

The principles of circular design, as promoted by groups such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and IDEO, can provide a framework for rethinking lithium-ion batteries. What if we could design a battery purposely built to start its life in an electric vehicle, transition to a second life providing energy storage for a large renewable energy project and finally be repurposed in a third life providing back-up emergency power to a commercial office building? When this battery exceeded its useful life, which would be designed to last far longer than the batteries of today, it would be recycled into its elemental parts to become feedstock for a new battery pack in a closed-loop system.

This challenge will be realized in part by moving towards a universal design for lithium-ion batteries, one that can be more easily swapped in and out for different applications. Similar to the USB plug that is compatible with a range of handheld electronics, this battery will be more of a commodity — widely available, interchangeable and reusable. Although this may consolidate the battery industry into favoring fewer and larger entities, it also will open the door to new business models, specifically energy storage-as-a-service whereby a single entity may own the battery throughout its life and rent it out for various uses.    

Such a battery does not yet exist, although early concepts are being tested. However, in order for lithium-ion batteries to meet the expected demand over the coming decades without significantly increasing our use of natural resources and straining the environment, a battery designed for a more circular economy is essential. Without it, a revolution in clean energy is not possible.

China is close to granting approval to some of its biggest state-owned companies to start developing the northern area of Simandou in Guinea, one of the world’s largest untapped iron ore deposits, sources familiar with the process said on Thursday.

A joint venture between Guinea’s Société Miniere de Boke (SMB) and Singapore’s Winning International Group, whose investors include Chinese aluminium producer Shandong Weiqiao and the Yantaï Port Group, secured in November rights to an area of the massive iron deposit, under Guinea’s mountainous jungle.

But the partners have been unable to proceed as they need the official go-ahead from China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which oversees the largest government-owned enterprises.

For over a decade, it seemed that Guinea’s crown jewel deposit would never be mined, as it was caught up in wrangles between companies that held rights to it and authorities in the West African nation.

In 2008, one of Guinea’s former dictators stripped Rio Tinto’s rights over two of the four blocks the deposit had been divided on and handed them to Israeli billionaire Benny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources (BSGR).

The world’s No. 2 miner was able keep the two southern blocks, but only after paying $700 million to the government in 2011. That guaranteed Rio tenure for the lifetime of the Simandou mine.

That deal came under scrutiny in 2016, forcing the company to fire two senior managers over a questionable $10.5 million payment made to a consultant who helped the company secure the two blocks and alerted authorities, including the US Department of Justice and the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.

Several investigations over bribery and corruption followed, until a settlement between Steinmetz and Guinea was reached early last year, ending the bitter and long-dragged out dispute involving Rio Tinto, Vale SA and BSGR.

As part of the agreement, Steinmetz’s company agreed to walk away from the asset, but retained the right to mine the smaller Zogota deposit.

Major new source

The prospect of seeing Simandou coming online within five years is seen as a threat by the world’s top producers of the steelmaking material. The deposit is not just massive — it holds two billion tonnes of iron ore — but the quality the expected output will have some the highest grades in the industry.

China is actively pushing forward with the project and a decision should come soon as SASAC is fine-tuning details, including how the project will be funded, the sources said.

Chinalco will be involved in the development, but SASAC is also reaching out to other state-owned companies about building a port and a 650-kilometer (400-mile) railway.

Rio Tinto holds a 45% stake in blocks three and four of Simandou, which it is actively planning to develop. State-controlled Chinalco owns 40% and the Guinea government 15%. 

Both companies are said to be trying to persuade authorities to let them use ArcelorMittal’s railway to a port in neighbouring Liberia.

China’s resource dependence on Guinea has increased in recent years. In 2017, Beijing agreed to loan President Condé’s administration $20 billion over almost 20 years in exchange for bauxite concessions.

Analysts say Guinea’s population has so far seen little benefit from Chinese investment.

Retail investment in silver coins has been weak in the early part of 2020 but should recover, said Metal Focus.

The consultancy pointed out that sales of U.S. silver Eagle coins fell to 4.5 million in the first two months of the year from 6.18 million in the same period of 2019.

A range-bound silver price has been a “challenge” for investment, Metals Focus said. Also, a number of retail investors have turned to silver-backed exchange-traded funds instead, Metals Focus said, with ETF silver holdings rising to 742 million ounces at the end of February from 729 million at the start of the year.

“Looking ahead though, we still expect this year to see an eventual recovery, albeit modestly, in U.S. silver coin and bar demand,” Metals Focus said.

“This is premised on our expectation that the silver price will break out to the upside, which in turn will encourage retail buying on two counts. First, given our view that institutional investment will strengthen (partly benefiting from positive spillover effects from gold), this will contribute to increased price volatility.

As a result, the price dips that emerge will generate bargain hunting. Second, as positive price expectations emerge, some retail investors may buy into a rising market, with a view to gaining exposure to silver before prices strengthen further.”

Lithium-ion batteries are in our phones, computers, luggage, and even cars. Compared to fossil fuels, like oil and gas, rechargeable batteries like these are meant to be a more sustainable option, but lithium-ion batteries have a dark secret: not only are the elements used in these batteries, like cobalt and lithium, dwindling, but mining for these toxic metals can cause environmental damage. Not to mention, lithium-ion batteries themselves can quickly lose charging capacity after repeated use.

In search of a longer-lasting, more environmentally friendly alternative to these popular batteries, researchers have looked to organic materials instead. Previous studies have explored solutions such as synthetic polypeptides (i.e. proteins) to play the role of the battery’s electrode, but a new study for York University has now looked at how a carbon-based organic molecule could work instead.

While these organic materials can face their own stability challenges, the York University team has demonstrated how a new molecule derived from organic materials can not only match lithium-ion batteries in terms of charge capacity but can outlast them in cycle recharges. All while overcoming cycle stability troubles associated with these organic approaches.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Batteries & Supercaps, explored how an electroactive, chemical compound, called PHOSPHORYL-BRIDGED VIOLOGENS (OR PHOSPHAVIOLOGENS) can be tethered to super tiny, CARBON NANOTUBE scaffolding to create an organic structure capable of replacing elements like cobalt in a lithium-ion battery. After fabricating this composite, the researchers set out to compare the effectiveness of their new battery to traditional models.

Co-author of the study and professor of chemistry at York University, Thomas Baumgartner, tells Inverse that what sets their approach apart is that instead of focusing on already existing building blocks, they are designing new ones.

“THE GOAL IS TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE BATTERIES.”

“A lot of organic battery research around the world uses the same very few organic building blocks as active component,” says Baumgartner. “For this technology to mature and expand further, new powerful electroactive molecules are required. This is what we do in my group – develop new building blocks. We had introduced a new building block a few years ago and how now further optimized it in the current work, to make the battery fabrication more efficient, which addresses the critical cost factor for this technology to become viable.”

The researchers observed that a hybrid, lithium-phosphaviologens battery exhibited voltages equivalent to traditional lithium-ion battery, up to 3.5 volts, and continued to retain its performance after 500 charge/recharge cycles. For comparison, a typical lithium-ion battery’s lifespan caps out at just 500 charging cycles.

With the promising results of this study, Baumgartner said in a statement that new composites like this could help make creating and recycling batteries in the future much easier and more sustainable.

“Organic electrode materials are considered to be extremely promising materials for sustainable batteries with high power capabilities,” said Baumgartner. “Electrodes made with organic materials can make large-scale manufacturing, recycling or disposing of these elements more environmentally friendly. The goal is to create sustainable batteries that are stable and have equally as good if not better capacity.”

However, Baumgartner also tells Inverse that these achievements don’t mean that lithium-ion batteries themselves will totally disappear; just change.

“Our device is still a lithium-ion battery at its core, and that design still follows that of traditional batteries consisting of two electrodes – a positive and a negative one – separated by a charge transport medium,” says Baumgartner. “In the foreseeable future, this will likely not change. What could change is the nature of both electrodes – with organic materials for both currently being explored, as well as finding alternatives for the charge transport medium (i.e. the Li-ions).”

That said, there are still a few wrinkles to iron out when it comes to perfecting their design before lithium-ion batteries are truly a thing of the past.

One such wrinkle is the resilience of their battery design at different temperatures. The authors report that the battery showed much more capacity loss at 5 degrees Celcius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to higher temperatures during the trials of around 20 degrees Celcius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) after 500 cycles. The authors write that this decreased capacity could be the result of incomplete discharging at this temperature and cycle range.

Moving forward Baumgartner says his team hopes to further improve the capacity of these batteries even beyond that of a traditional lithium-ion battery, which he tells Inverse will involve overcoming a weight disadvantage these molecules have compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries.

“Many molecules are still too heavy for the amount of energy that can be stored in a given volume. That is what we are working on – making the materials better in storing more energy by also becoming lighter,” says Baumgartner. “At this point, given the weight disadvantage, organic batteries would not provide enough power in such a small space required for a phone, for example. Application in a car is more realistic since there is arguably more space for the battery, but the added weight could be unreasonably high. Realistically, a lot more work needs to go into considerably improving the capacity of organic batteries before they can become commercially viable. But we are at least on the right track.”

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute published a study where they demonstrate that it is possible to overcome a persistent challenge known as ‘dendrites’ to create a metal battery that performs nearly as well as a lithium-ion battery.

Their proposal relies on potassium – a much more abundant and less expensive element to overcome the issue.

In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the scientists say that while metal batteries have shown great promise, they have also traditionally been plagued by the accumulation of metal deposits, or dendrites, on the anode.

Dendrites are formed because of non-uniform deposition of potassium metal as the battery undergoes repeated cycles of charging and discharging. Over time, the conglomerates of potassium metal become long and almost branch-like and can pierce the insulating membrane separator meant to keep the electrodes from touching each other – causing the battery to short.

But the team led by Nikhil Koratkar, a professor at Rensselaer, propose that by incorporating a potassium metal anode and a potassium cobalt oxide cathode, and by operating the battery at a relatively high charge and discharge rate, users can raise the temperature inside the battery in a well-controlled manner and encourage the dendrites to self-heal off the anode.

While the temperature increase within the battery won’t melt the potassium metal, it does help to activate surface diffusion so the potassium atoms move laterally off the ‘pile’ they’ve created, effectively smoothing the dendrite out.

“With this approach, the idea is that at night or whenever you’re not using the battery, you would have a battery management system that would apply this local heat that would cause the dendrites to self-heal,” Koratkar said. “In terms of performance, this could rival a traditional lithium-ion battery.”