Battery Metals

An official announcement has now been made by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy about the planned battery cell production at the Opel site in Kaiserslautern, in the southwest of Germany: The plant will be producing 24 GWh, despite an earlier report on southwest German radio SWR that 32 GWh will be produced. The relevant cell technology is currently still being developed in France by Saft.

“Starting in 2023, we intend to gradually build three blocks, each with a capacity of eight-gigawatt hours. This means that around half a million vehicles a year will be able to be powered by battery cells ‘Made in Kaiserslautern’ in the future,” said Opel Managing Director Michael Lohscheller during an event with German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Peter Altmaier and Rhineland-Palatinate Premier Malu Dreyer in Kaiserslautern. Around two billion euros will be invested in the project and around 2,000 jobs will be created at the site.

With a capacity of 24 GWh and 500,000 vehicles, Lohscheller thus expects an average battery size of 48 kWh in each car. This corresponds roughly to the battery capacity installed in the Opel Corsa-e or Peugeot e-208. Upcoming BEVs with larger batteries should probably be compensated by the PHEV models with significantly lower capacity.

“The battery cells from Kaiserslautern can be used at all Opel locations, whether for plug-in hybrid production in Eisenach, the electric Corsa from our Spanish plant in Zaragoza, or the future electrified Astra version from Rüsselsheim,” Lohscheller told the German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ahead of the event. “In addition, they will, of course, be available to PSA’s sister brands.”

Altmaier: “the best and most sustainable batteries”

The planned parallel factory in France will also have a capacity of 24 GWh, and in combination with the battery cell production at Opel’s Kaiserslautern site, the consortium will be producing a total of 48 GWh. The total investment volume for this project is almost five billion euros.

Altmaier described the planned battery production as a “great success for the automotive location in Kaiserslautern”. He said he was “pleased that the European Commission has examined and approved the first major battery project for Europe in just a few weeks.” He explained: “We want to build the best and most sustainable batteries in Germany and Europe. I am convinced that battery cells from Kaiserslautern can set new standards in terms of CO2 balance and sustainability”. The battery consortium is regarded as a showcase project for the German Minister for Economic Affairs, and the funding is often referred to as the “Altmaier Billion“.

PSA and Juice establish a joint venture

At the end of January, the consortium consisting of the French battery manufacturer Saft, Opel and other companies started pilot production at the Saft site in Nersac in the south of France. “The pilot production that we now have here is basically the precursor for series cell production,” said Research Minister Anja Karliczek at the event in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron. Production at the parallel factory in Douvrin in northern France is scheduled to start in 2023, and in Kaiserslautern one year later.

At the event in Nersac, it was also announced that Opel parent company PSA and Total subsidiary Saft intend to set up a joint venture called ACC (Automotive Cell Company). This joint venture will pool the “know-how to develop activities for the production of electric vehicle batteries in Europe”. As Lohscheller now announced to the German newspaper FAZ, the cells produced there could also be offered to manufacturers outside of PSA. The joint venture of Total, Saft, PSA and Opel will produce battery cells “which will be offered to any interested customer”.

In 2024, VW and Northvolt battery cell production will also start in Salzgitter. This will initially comprise 16 GWh, but will be expanded to 24 GWh “in the following years”. As has just been announced, VW intends to submit a corresponding building application as early as March. However, the expansion to 24 GWh has not yet been officially decided, and the building application is intended to keep options open, according to a company spokesperson.

President Trump is scheduled to enact new tariffs on steel and aluminum this weekend, a politically risky move that threatens to revisit trade tensions in an election year.

The tariffs, covering nearly $500 million of goods, come on the heels of two significant trade accomplishments: signing a preliminary deal with China and updating the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The pursuit of new tariffs suggests Trump might not set aside all of his trade fights heading into his reelection bid.

Trump made his first foray into the trade wars that have come to define his presidency in March 2018, when he imposed 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum, largely keeping the tariffs confined to the raw materials.

While those tariffs were designed to protect domestic steel and aluminum manufacturers, economists warned that they would distort markets and increase prices, potentially making life difficult for some producers.

Subsequent tariffs to protect those kinds of manufacturers are known as “cascading tariffs,” and the tariffs slated to take effect Saturday designed to cover products made from raw steel and aluminum, such as nails and automobile bumpers.

“This latest action was significant because, explicitly for the first time, Trump was imposing new tariffs to help an industry suffering because of his previous tariffs,” said Chad Bown, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

According to Bown, the new tariffs will cover roughly $449 million worth of imports, significantly less than the metal tariffs that covered about $47 billion and the $370 billion in tariffs for Chinese goods.

The new tariffs could help alleviate pressure on some manufacturers in key battleground states. Trump is hoping to repeat the 2016 hat trick of winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, where manufacturing plays an outsize role.

Still, Bown argued, the latest move illustrates how tariffs often beget more tariffs.

The upcoming tariffs will hit industries like construction that could in turn begin demanding the administration extend protections to their industries.

Jacqueline Varas, an analyst at the right-leaning American Action Forum, estimates that Trump’s tariffs will cost consumers $78 billion a year overall.

“Trade barriers such as tariffs increase the cost of both consumer and producer goods and depress the economic benefits of competition, inhibiting economic growth,” she said.

Perhaps more urgently, the new tariffs could indicate Trump’s recent trade war pause will be short-lived.

Trump put his trade war with China on hold last month by signing a preliminary “phase one” deal that halted the tariff regime he put in place, scaled back certain parts of it and scrapped additional measures from taking effect.

The new tariffs, however, will affect $72 million of Chinese imports. They will also contravene a partial trade deal with Japan that Trump agreed to in December by imposing tariffs on $61 million worth of imports.

But the new round exempts $270 million of imports from Canada and Mexico, which could have caused a stir just a week after Trump signed The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, delivering on a 2016 campaign promise to update NAFTA.

On Capitol Hill, some critics, including Republicans, have raised concerns that the new tariffs might be illegal. Trump relied on a national security argument to impose the original steel and aluminum tariffs, but legal analysts say the derivative tariffs are not covered in the Commerce Department report justifying those trade barriers.

Among those concerned are Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has been critical of Trump’s trade policy and previously floated legislation to limit the president’s trade authority.

“Chairman Grassley has questions about how the Commerce Department reached its conclusions that led to the imposition of tariffs and will be looking into the matter further,” a Grassley spokesman said.

But Trump may be hesitant to stir the pot in a more significant way with just nine months until Election Day.

A recent survey of CFOs found that their top concern was trade policy, and stock markets have seen some of the declines of his administration in response to escalating trade wars.

With that backdrop, and with the economy as a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, Trump may choose to keep any new tariffs to a minimum.

Energy storage startup SPARKZ Inc. has exclusively licensed five battery technologies from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed to eliminate cobalt metal in lithium-ion batteries. The advancement is aimed at accelerating the production of electric vehicles and energy storage solutions for the power grid.

The licensed technologies include cathode materials, a novel electrolyte formula and a scaling process that will together enable industrial scale production of more sustainable, fast-charging cobalt-free batteries.

Cobalt is a rare, costly and difficult-to-access metal that increases the performance but reduces the safety of lithium-ion batteries found in consumer electronics, such as mobile devices, and in electric vehicles, or EVs. The metal is specifically used in a battery’s cathode, the positively charged end that determines much of a battery’s performance. However, because cobalt is costly and mined overseas, finding alternative materials has become a top priority.

“Moving forward to an electrified world with millions of electric cars, cobalt is not sustainable,” said Ilias Belharouak, a group leader in ORNL’s Energy and Transportation Science Division.

Global battery demand is expected to increase to around 14 times 2018 levels of 184 gigawatt hours, or GWh, to more than 2,600 GWh in 2030, according to a report by the World Economic Forum’s Global Battery Alliance. Of that growth, the large majority is projected to take place in the mobility sector, a main focus of the licensed technologies.

“Oak Ridge National Laboratory is pleased to license this suite of advanced battery technologies to support efficient, affordable energy storage for electric vehicles,” said Moe Khaleel, associate laboratory director of ORNL’s Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate. “Our scientists push the boundaries of what’s possible with materials science and process engineering. By working with industry partners such as SPARKZ Inc. we can help accelerate the transition of these technologies to the marketplace for the greatest societal impact.”

SPARKZ Inc. is evaluating a location for an R&D and prototyping facility in the U.S. to scale these technologies to meet the demands of customers in the mobility and grid sectors.

“We have chosen Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be our partner because ORNL provides all those functionalities which are essential to get a product rapidly to market; namely, access to the world’s best battery technologists, or human capital; access to the best technology, or intellectual capital; and access to the best infrastructure,” SPARKZ Inc. CEO Sanjiv Malhotra said.

SPARKZ Inc. licensed ORNL-developed technologies including:

• High energy density secondary lithium batteries: This high-density lithium battery design uses novel cathode and anode compositions to overcome energy density limitations of existing technologies for more efficient rechargeable batteries.
• Cobalt-free layered oxide cathodes: This low-cost, cobalt-free cathode material was created for the development of improved lithium-ion batteries.
• Nonaqueous electrolyte with lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide salt for fast charging/discharging of Li-ion batteries: Electrolytes are the liquid medium by which cathodes and anodes “talk” to each other in batteries by exchanging electrons. This new electrolyte formulation allows faster charging for lithium-ion batteries and can perform at a 23% higher capacity during a 12-minute charge than other formulas.
• Early transition metal stabilized high capacity oxidatively stable cathodes of lithium-ion batteries: This innovation improves on lithium-ion cathodes by replacing early transition metals, namely cobalt, at relevant sites in cathodes, and by varying the lithium composition.
• Battery materials scale up and processes: This manufacturing innovation enables industrial-scale production of battery materials through a series of chemical processes.

“The hallmark of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s technologies is developing low-cost, cobalt-free cathode materials without compromising on energy density,” said Jagjit Nanda, a principal investigator on several of the licensed technologies, who works in ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division.

Energy density, or the amount of charge that a given quantity of a material holds, is especially important for EVs. Fast-charging, energy dense batteries developed by ORNL and scaled by SPARKZ could allow electric charging stations to take over as the “gas stations of the future.”

“I look at this as a very strategic partnership,” Belharouak said. “It will establish ORNL as the ‘engine’ around energy storage research in the Southeast region.”

In 2019, DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Office selected the ORNL-SPARKZ partnership for the DOE Lab Investment Incubator Activity, which focuses on maturing lab-scale technologies for commercialization.

The partnership was also selected in 2019 for a $750,000 DOE Technology Commercialization Fund project, “Enabling Cobalt-Free Battery Solution for Behind-the-Meter Storage.”

SPARKZ, Inc., was founded in 2019 by Sanjiv Malhotra, who has worked as a scientist, an entrepreneur, a venture capitalist and in the public sector, including as the first ever director of DOE’s Energy Investor Center. He founded methanol fuel cell company Oorja Protonics, Inc., in 2004, which he sold to a private equity firm in 2014.

India’s largest commercial oil company, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., will partner with Lod-based energy start-up Phinergy to develop and produce innovative metal-air batteries, often regarded as the solution for long-distance electric-vehicle travel.

Indian Oil said it had bought a minority stake in Phinergy on Tuesday, which specializes in aluminum-air (Al-air) and zinc-air technologies. Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries that carry oxygen within a heavy electrode, metal-air systems produce energy by combining aluminum, water and oxygen from the air.

The future incorporation of the long-pursued battery solution into electric vehicles, Phinergy said, will enable long-range driving, five-minute energy recharges and lowering the cost of electric vehicles.

Indian Oil and Phinergy plan to form a joint venture in India to collaborate on developing an Al-air battery system, including research and development, customization, manufacturing, assembly and the selling and service of energy systems. The companies also intend to establish a factory in India to manufacture the batteries for electric vehicles and additional stationary applications.

“We are confident that this Al-air battery technology would complement lithium-ion batteries to provide a hybrid solution for large-scale adoption of electric vehicles in the country,” Indian Oil chairman Sanjiv Singh said, adding that the company is assessing numerous alternative-energy options. “Al-air battery technology has advantages on a number of factors like range, energy density, safety of operations, life cycle, etc.”

Indian Oil hopes the development of innovative battery solutions will reduce the country’s reliance on imports, which are highly susceptible to geopolitical and currency-related risks. The development of Al-air solutions is considered to be particularly relevant to the Indian market due to its natural availability and the large aluminum production industry in the country.

“Phinergy is glad to join forces with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. and share the vision of enabling clean and affordable energy solutions for India,” Phinergy CEO David Mayer said.

The companies said they are both currently in discussions with “leading auto manufacturers” to adopt Al-air technology in cars, buses and electric three-wheelers.

The University of Rochester research lab that recently used lasers to create unsinkable metallic structures has now demonstrated how the same technology could be used to create highly efficient solar power generators.

In a paper published in Light: Science & Applications today (February 4, 2020), the lab of Chunlei Guo, professor of optics also affiliated with Physics and the Material Sciences Program, describes using powerful femto-second laser pulses to etch metal surfaces with nanoscale structures that selectively absorb light only at the solar wavelengths, but not elsewhere.

A regular metal surface is shiny and highly reflective. Years ago, the Guo lab developed a black metal technology that turned shiny metals pitch black. “But to make a perfect solar absorber,” Guo says, “We need more than a black metal and the result is this selective absorber.”

This surface not only enhances the energy absorption from sunlight, but also reduces heat dissipation at other wavelengths, in effect, “making a perfect metallic solar absorber for the first time,” Guo says. “We also demonstrate solar energy harnessing with a thermal electric generator device.”

“This will be useful for any thermal solar energy absorber or harvesting device,” particularly in places with abundant sunlight, he adds.

The work was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Army Research Office, and the National Science Foundation.

The researchers experimented with aluminum, copper, steel, and tungsten, and found that tungsten, commonly used as a thermal solar absorber, had the highest solar absorption efficiency when treated with the new nanoscale structures. This improved the efficiency of thermal electrical generation by 130 percent compared to untreated tungsten.

Co-authors include Sohail Jalil, Bo Lai, Mohamed Elkabbash, Jihua Zhang, Erik M. Garcell, and Subhash Singh of the Guo lab.

The lab has also used the femto-second laser etching technology to create superhydrophobic (water repellent) and superhydrophilic (water-attracting) metals. In November 2019, for example, Guo’s lab reported creating metallic structures that do not sink no matter how often they are forced into water or how much it is damaged or punctured.

This new paper, however, expands upon the lab’s initial work with femto-second laser-etched black metal.

Prior to creating the water attracting and repellent metals, Guo and his assistant, Anatoliy Vorobyev, demonstrated the use of femto-second laser pulses to turn almost any metal pitch black. The surface structures created on the metal were incredibly effective at capturing incoming radiation, such as light. But they captured light over a broad range of wavelengths.

Subsequently, his team used a similar process to change the color of a range of metals to various colors, such as blue, golden, and gray, in addition to the black already achieved. The applications could include making color filters and optical spectral devices, a car factory using a single laser to produce cars of different colors; etching a full-color photograph of a family into the refrigerator door; or proposing with a gold engagement ring that matches the color of your fiancee’s blue eyes.

The lab also used the initial black and colored metal technique to create a unique array of nano- and micro-scale structures on the surface of a regular tungsten filament, enabling a light bulb to glow more brightly at the same energy usage.

“We fired the laser beam right through the glass of the bulb and altered a patch on the filament. When we lit the bulb, we could actually see this one patch was clearly brighter than the rest of the filament,” Guo said.

Glencore said its 2019 copper output fell 6% and battery mineral cobalt rose 10% as it boosted production at its Katanga mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, offsetting the impact of the early closure of another operation.

The news drove Glencore’s shares 5% higher by 1000 GMT, outperforming London peers, as analysts took the view Glencore was overcoming operational problems in Africa.

The miner shut its Mutanda mine in Congo ahead of schedule in November in response to falling cobalt prices and rising costs and taxes.

Glencore, whose CEO Ivan Glasenberg has said he may be replaced this year, has been battling multiple issues, including political and operational issues in Congo and Zambia, and investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office.

The problems have weighed on Glencore’s shares, which shed 19% last year.

Analysts now predict a rally, saying the company is too cheap and operational problems have been tackled.

“Glencore continues to screen as a strong value proposition,” Tyler Broda of RBC Capital Markets said in a note.

Glencore on Tuesday said its 2019, copper output reached 1.37 million tonnes while cobalt climbed 42,200 tonnes. In the fourth quarter, copper output fell to 355,400 tonnes and cobalt production dropped to 11,900 tonnes.

It should benefit from the rise of electric vehicles, which use high volumes of copper and cobalt.

But the company, which is the world’s biggest shipper of export quality coal, is under mounting pressure from investors concerned about the need to phase out fossil fuel to lower climate-warming emissions.

Production of zinc, ferrochrome and nickel fell slightly but the company kept its full year 2020 outlook unchanged.

Also on Tuesday, Glencore appointed former China Molybdenum International CEO Kalidas Madhavpeddi to its board. China Moly, like Glencore, operates in Congo.