Battery Metals

Toyota has been slow out of the gate in the race to build cars with plugs, preferring to rest on its laurels as the first company to sell conventional hybrid cars in large quantities. Other than that, it has cast its lot with fuel cell technology, managing to sell hundreds of its Mirai hydrogen powered sedans worldwide in the past few years.

But Toyota is in danger of being left behind as the electric car revolution gathers momentum, particularly in China and other world markets. And so, it has formed a joint venture with Panasonic to manufacture EV batteries. Toyota will own 51% of the new business and Panasonic the remaining 49%. Panasonic will transfer ownership of five battery manufacturing facilities in China and Japan to the new entity, but the deal will not affect its partnership with Tesla in Nevada.

According to Nikkei Asian Review, the total amount of battery capacity from the new venture will be 50 times greater than what Toyota now uses for its standard hybrid vehicles. The expectation is that such an expanded capacity will dramatically reduce the per unit cost of the batteries.

The JV will supply batteries to Mazda as well, which is partnering with Toyota on EV technology, along with Toyota subsidiaries Daihatsu and Subaru. Honda currently uses Panasonic battery cells in its hybrid projects and will also benefit from the new combined manufacturing arrangement.

The two companies will also cooperate in developing next-generation solid-state batteries which are expected to boost the range of electric cars at lower cost than today’s lithium-ion batteries. They have been working together on solid-state technologies since 2017. One of the perceived advantages of solid-state batteries is they have no liquid electrolyte that can catch fire in rare instances.

Toyota plans to triple its annual sales of electrified vehicles — a term that includes conventional hybrids — to 5.5 million by 2030, but lower battery prices are essential to reaching that goal. The new business relationship is expected to help bring less expensive batteries to market and spread the development costs across a wider business model. The link up between the two companies may also allow them to compete more effectively for scarce raw materials as the demand for batteries increases globally.

Does any of this mean Toyota has turned away from its fixation on fuel cell vehicles at long last? Not necessarily, but it does indicate a course correction that could lean in that direction in the near future.

The battery of an electric car is often denigrated as rolling hazardous waste in circles still favouring the combustion engine. We were able to convince ourselves of the opposite at the specialist firm Duesenfeld that is disposing of the myth – Battery recycling works deep into the cell. It is only down to politics to define a legal framework for a recycling cycle.

Metals over metals everywhere: A battery system consists of steel and alloy, lithium, copper, cobalt, and nickel. In addition, there are other materials such as plastics for insulation or liquid electrolytes. A mix weighing several hundred kilograms per vehicle. And one that could be valuable at some point. Therefore, an industrial recycling network must be set up for obvious reasons such as environmental protection, conservation of resources and, in the long run, also from a cost perspective.

It takes many years before the traction battery of an electric car finally breaks down if you take into account refurbishment and second use, for example as a stationary storage device. At some point, however, the recycling of an electric car’s most important component will have a massive impact. So the goal of recycling must be the most effective recovery and reuse possible.

Anyone interested in electric mobility knows the polemics and crude theses about lithium-ion batteries. It is true that dealing with them is by no means trivial or risk-free as anyone handling large amounts of energy should always be careful. Christian Hanisch, managing director, partner and visionary at Duesenfeld, is well aware of this. The editorial staff of our parent site electrive.net visited the recycling company based only 13 kilometres away from Volkswagen’s battery production hall in the German town of Braunschweig.

Mobile recycling technology saves high costs of logistics

On the one hand, Duesenfeld is exemplary for the current state of recycling, because some processes resemble those of the industry giant Umicore from Belgium. On the other side, Hanisch has decisively innovated: The result is a considerably reduced energy input, therefore an improved CO2 balance, a high recycling efficiency as well as the possibility of moving the recycling technology. Such decentralised recovery is useful, among other things, because it saves costs of logistics that are usually high due to the hazardous nature of the process (high voltage batteries classify as dangerous goods).

At Duesenfeld, the industry service electrive.net witnessed the dismantling of several BMW i3 batteries. They first have to be deeply discharged with the battery management system switched off for this purpose. By the way, the residual current is used to support the facility. After discharge, workers dismantle the batteries manually, and until here, the steps are still the same as those at other recycling companies. The crash-resistant outer shell with further holding structures, cables, the cooling circuit, and the modules can be dismantled with a simple tool and end up in mesh boxes sorted by type.

This is where the differences at Duesenfeld begin: many companies now use so-called thermal decomposition in a highly secured furnace. At 450 to 500 degrees the cells’ valves burst open and the critical electrolyte burns abruptly; perfect separation of the remaining materials is now more difficult.

Test recycling with residue analysis

“We work with mechanics instead of temperature and crush the entire module in an inert atmosphere,” explains Christian Hanisch of Duesenfeld. The shredder contains nitrogen gas, which prevents further chemical reactions. The pressure is then significantly reduced, which first evaporates the liquid electrolyte and then recovers it through condensation. In addition to the grinding shredder, the electrolyte flows into a container.

The remains of the battery module and the cells are now dried and uncritical. Duesenfeld then separates the remaining mixture by proven processes such as magnets or air. The chips of the separator foil, the ferrous metals, the non-ferrous metals such as alloy and powder from lithium as well as cathode residues with nickel, manganese and cobalt remain. According to Christian Hanisch of Duesenfeld, this black powder could soon be processed “by a hydrometallurgical process into lithium carbonate and sulfates of nickel, manganese and cobalt”. This way, most of the original battery could be retained for further use. Duesenfeld will not tell who from the automotive industry has asked the company to have ten tons of batteries dismantled as a test and to have the evaluation presented to them later. However, they let through that we are talking about international and big names.

Legal recycling quota must drastically increase

It is part of the sometimes disappointing reality of life that recycling is not yet worthwhile despite rising resource prices. It is still cheaper to produce new lithium or cobalt. However, as demand will increase radically and countries of origin increasingly use their bargaining power, the EU should drastically raise the minimum recycling rate of only 50% by weight. China wants to obligate manufacturers of electrified vehicles to take back and recycle used batteries. In the summer of 2018, China also selected 17 cities and regions to launch a pilot programme for the recycling of used electric vehicle batteries. With BMW, Northvolt and Umicore, at least the first technology consortium for the joint development of a complete value chain for electric car battery cells has been set up in Europe as well. Audi and Umicore are also developing a closed loop for recycling high-voltage batteries from electric cars.

Conclusion

The high use of resources in traction batteries has long been recognised as a problem. One way to improve is the continuous development of cell chemistry and battery systems towards ever higher volumetric and gravimetric energy density. Due to the high raw material costs, this happens virtually automatically. At the same time, a recycling network must be set up that functions on an industrial scale. This requires tightening the legal framework to not only protect the environment but also to relieve the car industry and electric vehicle owners.

Amid concerns about an anticipated slowdown in South Korea’s semiconductor exports this year, lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles are emerging as a new pillar that will prop up the export-driven economy, said industry officials Monday.

According to forecasts by industry insiders and stock brokerages, the country’s three battery manufacturers — LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation — last year won a total of around 110 trillion won ($97.6 billion) worth of orders for electric vehicle batteries from global customers.

Combined with orders on hand from the previous year, the three firms’ order backlogs are estimated to reach 175 trillion won, some industry sources say.

Such figures raise expectations that the battery industry could become the second-biggest contributor to the country’s exports, with batteries being one of the top 10 export items along with semiconductors, petrochemicals, automobiles, steel, displays and ships.

Some in the industry even compare lithium-ion batteries with semiconductors, defining the battery business as “a second semiconductor business.”

Jeon Young-hyun, CEO of Samsung SDI, has long claimed in corporate messages that the growth rate of the battery industry is steeper than that of the chipmaking industry.

Industry Minister Sung Yoon-mo has also supported the industry’s rise, saying during a business event, “The lithium-ion battery market is a new business with high growth prospects that would outperform semiconductors.”

Indeed, the global battery market has been posting annual growth of 40 to 50 percent for the past few years, as players expanded investments in technology development and production facilities.

Furthermore, battery makers are now getting closer to achieving profits.

LG Chem, Korea’s No. 1 battery provider by shipments, is forecast to announce the first quarterly surplus in its EV battery business during its fourth-quarter earnings call slated for Jan. 30.

The company won 40 trillion won worth of orders last year alone, according to industry estimates. Its official order backlogs stood at 60 trillion won as of June while some forecasts show the company’s backlogs reached 80 trillion won at the end of last year.

“LG Chem’s EV battery sales are estimated to be around 3.1 trillion won in 2018, contributing to expanding the overall cell business,” said Hwang Yoo-sik, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities. “The EV battery business is forecast to grow to 5.5 trillion won in 2019 and 10 trillion won by 2020 in sales.”

Samsung SDI also attained around 40 trillion won worth of orders last year and is expected to see significant improvement in its performance last year. The firm’s annual earnings are scheduled to be announced Friday.

“It is true that the industry saw significantly increased orders last year, as global automakers announced large-scale EV projects, for example, Volkswagen,” said a Samsung SDI official.

According to a recent report by SNE Research, carmakers, including Volkswagen, Daimler, Ford, GM, Toyota and Nissan, have announced a total of $94 billion worth of investments for electrified vehicles.

“We are expecting an improved operating profit for the battery business, but mostly because of small batteries and larger ones for electricity storage systems, at least until last year. We are yet evaluating the EV battery business conservatively,” he said.

The SDI official said it is still early to expect a surplus from the electric-vehicle battery business.

SK Innovation is a relative newcomer in the electric-vehicle battery market, reportedly bagging around 30 trillion won worth of orders last year, as the company appealed to customers with aggressive investments.

Compared to 30 gigawatt-hours of order backlogs in 2016, the firm had 320 GWh of accumulated orders at the end of last year, according to the company.

Special Report: The company proposing to develop a new battery metals refinery in north Queensland says a scoping study has confirmed the project’s commercial potential and given it the confidence to proceed with the next phase of assessment.

Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM), the private entity that Pure Minerals (ASX: PM1) has an option to acquire, has released the scoping study detailing its plan to establish a refinery in Townsville, processing nickel-cobalt ore imported from New Caledonia under existing supply agreements.

The study assessed an operation processing 600,000 wet tonnes of ore per annum to produce approximately 25,000 tonnes per annum of nickel sulphate, 3,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate and other valuable co-products including hematite, alumina and magnesium oxide

Upfront capital required to build the refinery is estimated at US$297 million, which includes a contingency of US$65 million and could be reduced through further feasibility and optimisation work.

“The scoping study follows a number of significant achievements by the company over the past 12 months and has confirmed the commercial potential of the project,” said QPM director John Downie.

“Given the positive results, we intend to move forward with further feasibility studies, extensive metallurgical testwork and efforts to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals as soon as possible.”

QPM says it plans to employ the Direct Nickel Process, developed by Direct Nickel Projects Pty Ltd, to process ore supplied by privately owned New Caledonian miners Societe des Mines de la Tontana and Societe Miniere Georges Montagnat SARL at the refinery.

The Direct Nickel Process uses nitric acid under atmospheric pressure to extract all valuable metals from lateritic ore sources and is a key reason the QPM project is less capital intensive than other Australian nickel-cobalt developments based around high pressure acid leach (HPAL) processing technology.

Whereas HPAL plants require the use of complex metal alloys that can withstand high pressure, the Direct Nickel Process will allow the use of standard grade stainless steel, which is readily available, for many of the QPM refinery’s components.

Based on this and other factors, the company estimates that the facility could be completed and ready for commissioning within 12 months of the start of construction.

Prior to its closure in 2016, the Queensland Nickel refinery operated in Townsville for many years, processing ore from New Caledonia.

The legacy is a town eager for new development but also one that is well equipped to service a project such as QPM’s.

Transport infrastructure in the region is more than adequate and the consumables that will be required to operate the refinery such as nitric acid, sulphuric acid and other industrial chemicals can be easily accessed.

The town also hosts a skilled labour force and has significant engineering support.

The founders of QPM, including Downie, were involved in negotiating the original New Caledonian ore supply agreements for Queensland Nickel and all have an intimate knowledge of the business.

The Guyana Manganese Inc. (GMI) says it will invest an estimated GUY$2.2 billion (one Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) in a project in Matthews Ridge, a small town in the north-west district of the country.

The project, set to be completed by the end of March this year, is expected to contribute towards Guyana’s economy with an estimated GUY$2.3 billion expected to be paid in taxes.

The company said it would also recruit 600 persons, including 540 Guyanese, and that first preference will be given to the residents in Matthews Ridge, Arakaka, Port Kaituma and Mabaruma.

The project will also involve the excavation of two million tonnes of manganese ore to produce 0.5 million tonnes of manganese concentrate. GMI is projecting annual sales at GUY$15.8 million.

GMI was established here by the Chinese-owned Boasai Mineral Group in November 2016. The company has two permissions for geological and geophysical surveys and four prospecting licenses originally issued to Reunion Manganese.

The two permissions cover an area of 19,770 square kilometres in the northwest of Guyana, while the four prospecting licenses cover an area of 185 square miles.

Aluminium industry is the largest non-ferrous metal industry in the world. Aluminium ranks second, next only to steel, in terms of volumes used due to its versatility, and its application have extended to various economic sectors. The Indian Aluminium industry is the mainstay for Indian economy and major contributor for nation building. As part of the Make in India initiative, 25 focus sectors have been identified and a majority of these sectors are a major consumer of aluminium. Aluminium is a sector of strategic importance due to its role in energy security, national defence, aerospace, automobile, infrastructure, packaging etc. and critical for the government’s visionary initiatives – Make in India, Smart Cities, Power for All, and indigenous space programs.

India’s current demand of aluminium is growing at ~10% per annum. Anticipating the rapid pace of aluminium consumption in the country, the domestic primary producers have made investments of Rs 1.20 lakh Cr ($20 billion) in the last few years to enhance the capacity from 20 lakh tons to 41 lakh tons per annum which is sufficient to cater to the domestic demand of 36 lakh tons per annum (in FY18). Despite this, around 60% of country’s demand is being met through imports as the share of domestic industry declined to 40% in FY19. FY17-18 witnessed the highest ever aluminium import of 19.6 lakh tons, resulting in a forex outgo of Rs 30,000 Cr ($ 4.5 billion) in FY18 (i.e. 1% of total Indian imports). At the current pace, aluminium import will result in an estimated forex outgo of Rs 40,000 Cr ($5.6 billion) in FY18-19.

Import of scrap aluminium has posed the biggest threat, constituting 57% of total aluminium imports. It is the existing duty differential – currently there is an import doty of 2.5% on scrap aluminium vis-à-vis a duty of 7.5% on primary metal – that encourages usage of imported scrap. Curiously, there is an import duty parity for both primary metal and scrap for all other non-ferrous metals (Copper, Zinc, Nickel, Lead, Tin etc.)

Globally, several countries have taken drastic steps to protect their domestic industry and the fallout of these recent global developments have adversely impacted India’s aluminium industry which has been crippled with imports. In March, 2018, the US government under President Trump went a step ahead to protect the US domestic steel and aluminium industry and imposed 10% and 25% respectively as import tariff, triggering a global trade war. As a retaliatory measure, China, the largest aluminium producer in the world, imposed a 25% duty on US aluminium scrap that accounts for almost 50% of its imports. Additionally, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) in China has added aluminium scrap in its restricted import list, effective from July, 2019, with a plan to completely ban all scrap and waste by the year 2020. Due to these measures, the global scrap supply chain will get diverted towards India, as EU and other developed countries have stringent standards for scrap import.

In fact, the domestic aluminium industry has started bearing the brunt with aluminium import witnessing a 22% growth for the April -November period of FY18-19 over the corresponding period of last year. This is in contrast to a decline in the growth of domestic sale which is at mere 0.8%. Being the fastest growing economy, India is the most natural market for these countries to dump surplus aluminium. Scrap import from USA alone has grown by 142%, while the total scrap import shipments increased by 20% during the same period.

The global developments, on the one hand, have resulted in the crashing of London Metal Exchange (LME) prices — the benchmark prices for metal trading globally. In the last eight months, Aluminium LME prices crashed by ~$500/MT (i.e. 23% from $2290/MT in May 2018 to $1800/MT level in January 2019). On the other, the industry is also crippled by increasing production costs which have gone up significantly by ~$525/ MT (~30% for overall industry) in last 3-4 years due to increased cost of raw materials, coal cess, Renewal Purchase Obligation, electricity duty, logistics costs and various other factors. Together, they have adversely impacted the sustainability and competitiveness of aluminium industry.

India is yet to follow the global trend and take any action needed for protection of the domestic aluminium industry. The domestic production needs to be encouraged to create self-sufficiency for catering to increasing demand, and country should not be dependent on imports. Aluminium imports in India are totally non-essential in nature as India has sufficient domestic capacity. Restricting Aluminium imports will result in saving $ 5 billion Forex outgo.

Going forward, Indian Government should take bold steps to enhance competitiveness vis-a-vis global players for the revival of the domestic aluminium industry. The immediate measure to support domestic industry by increasing customs duties on aluminium metal to 10% and establishing import duty parity between primary aluminium and scrap will help curb imports, save foreign exchange reserves and encourage domestic aluminium consumption. In addition to this, further support should be extended through adequate safeguard measures similar to those adopted for the Indian steel industry in last three years.