Battery Metals

Hong Kong was set to be a global leader for electric vehicles, but Tesla may pull out if policies don’t change.

We hear continued talk about China being the biggest automotive market in the world and the “place to be” when it comes to electric car manufacturers. However, as we previously reported, there are many issues making it difficult for electric vehicle makers to succeed in the region.

Last year, Hong Kong removed full registration tax incentives for EVs, which forced prices to skyrocket as much as 80 percent. There’s also a cap involved that allows for only so much support for electric car buyers. Both are impacting companies like Tesla significantly and EV sales have tanked as a result.

The very first month after the incentives were eliminated (April 2017), not a single new EV was registered in Hong Kong. For the rest of the year, Hong Kong saw only 99 new registrations, compared to the 2,078 from the same time period in 2016. Tesla only sold 32 vehicles during those months. Conversely, in March, just prior to the new legislation, buyers raced to get into new EVs, with a total of 2,939 deliveries.

The South China Morning Post reported:

“Scaling down Tesla’s operation in Hong Kong is a natural and logical consequence if the number of customers has dwindled prompted by a reduction of government incentives. Without government support, who is ­willing to invest in green technology?”

Hong Kong officials claim that the EV credit was removed mostly due to its benefit being limited to upper-class consumers, as well as growing traffic congestion in the area. Last year, prior to the elimination of the incentive, there were 10,589 electric cars registered in Hong Kong, most of which were Telsa Model S and X vehicles. Essentially, the Silicon Valley automaker was becoming too popular in Hong Kong, and too many Tesla vehicles were being sold in the area. The Post continued:

“The sale of Tesla cars in one month was equal to the annual sales figure of some petrol car brands. They all complained that the rapid growth of Tesla these few years had made their lives really difficult.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has previously referred to Hong Kong as a “beacon city” for EV adoption, but now, it seems the opposite is true. The Post reached out to Tesla for comment. The automaker replied:

“We remain hopeful that the government will continue to encourage more electric vehicles on the road and preserve Hong Kong’s lead in clean, sustainable living.”

A multi-institution team of scientists led by Texas A&M University chemist Sarbajit Banerjee has discovered an exceptional metal-oxide magnesium battery cathode material, moving researchers one step closer to delivering batteries that promise higher density of energy storage on top of transformative advances in safety, cost and performance in comparison to their ubiquitous lithium-ion (Li-ion) counterparts.

“The worldwide push to advance renewable energy is limited by the availability of energy storage vectors,” says Banerjee in the team’s paper, published in the journal Chem (“Reversible Mg-Ion Insertion in a Metastable One-Dimensional Polymorph of V2O5”). “Currently, lithium-ion technology dominates; however, the safety and long-term supply of lithium remain serious concerns. By contrast, magnesium is much more abundant than lithium, has a higher melting point, forms smooth surfaces when recharging, and has the potential to deliver more than a five-fold increase in energy density if an appropriate cathode can be identified.”

Ironically, the team’s futuristic solution hinges on a redesigned form of an old Li-ion cathode material, vanadium pentoxide, which they proved is capable of reversibly inserting magnesium ions.

“We’ve essentially reconfigured the atoms to provide a different pathway for magnesium ions to travel along, thereby obtaining a viable cathode material in which they can readily be inserted and extracted during discharging and charging of the battery,” Banerjee says.

This rare phenomenon is achieved by limiting the location of the magnesium ions to relatively uncomfortable atomic positions by design, based on the way the vanadium pentoxide is made — a property known as metastability. This metastability helps prevent the magnesium ions from getting trapped within the material and promotes complete harvesting of their charge-storing capacity with negligible degradation of the material after many charge-recharge cycles.

The Ins and Outs of Intercalation

Banerjee, a Davidson Professor of Science in the Texas A&M Department of Chemistry and an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been working for a number of years to better understand ion intercalation — the critical process by which ions like lithium and magnesium move in and out of other materials within intercalation batteries.

Using one of the world’s most powerful soft X-ray microscopes — the Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscope (STXM) and X-ray Emission beamlines — at the Canadian Light Source in tandem with one of the world’s highest resolution aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopes housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Banerjee and collaborators from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the UIC and Argonne National Laboratory were able to observe the unique electronic properties of their novel vanadium pentoxide and directly prove magnesium-ion intercalation into the material. Collectively, the team applied decades of combined experience in materials science to explain the fundamental reasons why this new type of vanadium pentoxide is superior to the old version as well as to Li-ion batteries.

Laptops and cell phones are two examples of the many technologies enabled by the rapid development of the lithium-ion battery, which revolutionized energy storage capacity and rechargeability in comparison to its lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride predecessors. However, given the widespread use of lithium not only in portable electronic devices but increasingly in the much larger batteries required for electric vehicles and grid energy storage, lithium is expected to be in increasingly short supply in the long-term. Furthermore, Li-ion batteries are a risky game, as highlighted by recent widely publicized reports detailed in Scientific American, Reuters and Forbes, for example, in which Li-ion-powered devices have either caught fire or exploded as a result of the fundamental flammability and reactivity of lithium.

“Apart from being much safer for consumer applications, magnesium-ion technology is appealing fundamentally because each magnesium ion gives up two electrons per ion — twice the charge, whereas each lithium ion gives up only one,” says Texas A&M chemistry graduate student and NASA Space Technology Research Fellow Justin Andrews, first author on the team’s paper. “This means that, all other considerations aside, if you can store as much magnesium in a material as you can store lithium, you immediately almost double the capacity of the battery.”

Double the Capacity, Double the Trouble

But for all their perceived advantages, magnesium batteries have proven too good to be true since they were first proposed in the 1990s and essentially sidelined by a variety of problems; primarily, the lack of a suitable cathode, or positive electrode — otherwise known as the part of a battery where the magnesium ions enter during discharge of the battery to power an electronic device and then exit during charging.

“Indeed, the most exciting thing about magnesium ions — namely, that they store twice the charge in battery applications — also forms the basis for the biggest challenge,” says collaborating UIC chemist Jordi Cabana. “The higher charge of the magnesium ions make them ‘stick’ much more strongly with surrounding atoms.”

In other words, Banerjee says, the magnesium ions get waylaid as they are traversing through the paths within the cathode material. Their sluggish movement is what makes it so difficult to make viable magnesium batteries.

“In many structures, some of these interactions are very favorable, meaning that the magnesium is quite happy to sit and stay a while in those specific sites,” Andrews explains. “In our material, the magnesium is ‘frustrated’ as it moves through the lattice, because it encounters many less-than-optimal environments. In this sense, it is more than happy to just keep moving right along, leading to an improvement in capacity and diffusion.”

The team’s National Science Foundation-funded research features two additional current and former Texas A&M graduate students, Abhishek Parija and Peter M. Marley, respectively. David Prendergast, a Facility Director at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy National User Facility for Nanoscale Science Research, helped the Texas A&M team design and interpret their calculations, which were experimentally verified in part by Fakra using Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source along with structural data collected at Argonne National Lab’s Advanced Photon Source. Atomic resolution images of the new form of vanadium pentoxide were collected in collaboration with UIC physicist Robert F. Klie and physics graduate student Arijita Mukherjee and show direct evidence of magnesium intercalated within the material. Battery measurements that show reversibility and confirm the robustness of the cathode material complete the story and were conducted in collaboration with Cabana and former Cabana group member Hyun Deog Yoo.

“On paper, magnesium batteries are highly desirable because they promise greater energy density on top of the ability to solve several of the key issues researchers — and unfortunately consumers — are discovering with lithium-ion batteries, including cost, safety, and performance at the most fundamental levels,” Andrews says. “But the shift from lithium- to magnesium-ion technologies is not straightforward, and the many problems encountered when designing magnesium-ion cathodes have stymied the development of these more sustainable and safer batteries.”

Working Toward a Safer Energy Future

Andrews says the team’s research marks an important turning point in the field because it represents a significant advance toward solving the cathode problem while also highlighting the inherent advantages of using much more imaginative, metastable materials like this new form of vanadium pentoxide. But even he admits there’s much more work to do before this particular ’90s trend comes back in vogue.

“While this research has provided a great deal of insight, there are still several other fundamental problems to overcome before magnesium batteries become a reality,” Andrews adds. “Nevertheless, this work moves magnesium batteries one step closer to reality — namely, a reality where batteries would be less-expensive, lighter and safer for allowing for easier adoption to large-area formats necessary for electric vehicles and to store energy generated by solar and wind sources.”

The new age energy storage bandwagon has quite possibly hit the buffers, courtesy of a legislative amendment in the polymetallic-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The DRC’s parliament voted to repeal cornerstone mining law imposed in 2002 giving resource companies a secure operational space guaranteeing tax-free operations for at least 10 years.

The slew of law amendments announced by the DRC on 27 January includes a tax hike from 2% to 3.5% on all mining, the removal or previously-expected tax amnesties and the introduction of a so-called “super profits tax” of 50% if commodity prices rise by 25% over-and-above what was estimated in resource feasibility studies.

Given the sharp increase in cobalt, lithium, copper and gold prices since 2016, the law changes effectively open-up existing mining companies based in the DRC to a significantly higher tax burden and sudden intangible uncertainty within billion-dollar projects currently in mid-construction.

It is feared the law changes will push some projects outside of economic viability and throws doubt on how profitable large miners such a Glencore, BHP and Ivanhoe can be in the DRC.

Cobalt prices have blitzed all analyst estimates, growing from around $20,000 per tonne in January 2016 to around $80,000 today – making the DRC’s law changes uniquely influential and hard-hitting for global commodity markets.

The new legislation directly impacts large miners first and foremost given their comparatively larger mining volumes and operating profit margins; with energy shares reeling since the legislative announcement.

Electric vehicles are starting to gain traction in communities as steps towards providing cleaner alternatives for automotive are being prioritized. Last year was a good year for the electric vehicles sector, with sales 25 percent higher compared to 2016 numbers.

Clean energy experts over at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) say 2018 will be even better. BNEF chief editor Angus McCrone notes that the trend of declining renewable energy prices in 2017 will continue this 2018. On the other hand, oil and coal prices will improve along with the global economic recovery, according to Forbes. While oil and coal will still be the leading energy sources, environment-friendly vehicles will be more competitive this year thanks to the growing support for renewable energy.

The clean energy sector will see around $333.5 billion in investments this year. However, compared to last year, more markets for clean energy will open up. BNEF’s Jenny Chase notes that China will still spearhead the sector, dominating half of the market. Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East will play significant roles as well.

Sales and investments

China is also one of the leaders in electric vehicle sales. EV sales are expected to grow 40 percent this year, which is about 1.5 million units; half of those units will be sold in China. In the US, there are 300,000 units projected to be sold. This figure could be a lot higher if Tesla meets its production goal within the year.

Investments made for electric vehicles this 2018 are already up to $90 billion, according to Reuters. Ford Motors Co. recently doubled its spending, and that number is expected to grow with key players like Tesla and Nissan pushing for electric vehicles.

The country that invested most in electric vehicles is Germany with $52 billion, followed by China with $21 billion and the US with $19 billion. Continued investments will allow for more affordable and accessible electric vehicles this 2018.

The electric cars to look out for

CNN reports that better electric vehicles are on the horizon as well—ones that can last through a person’s daily transportation needs—thanks to developments by key players in the sector such as Tesla, Chevrolet, GM, and Nissan.

An electric vehicle to look out for is the Chevrolet Bolt EV, which will be made available in all US states this year. The electric vehicle has sold more than 20,000 units last year despite being available in select states only. The price of the Chevrolet Bolt EV starts at $37,000, and its batteries can run for as long as 238 miles.

Moreover, Electrek reports that the Tesla Model 3 is seeing a push in production after the Elon Musk-owned company produced less than 300 units last year. For now, Tesla is working on a dual-motor version of its latest electric vehicle, which is expected to run longer than the standard version released last year.

As electric vehicles are becoming more prominent, we can expect more car manufacturers to look into the production of this alternative. It can be the cheaper option for drivers, but most importantly, it’s a better option for the environment.

Coordination complex reveals why rare-earth elements give methanol dehydrogenase enzyme a boost

Ten years ago, in a steaming volcanic mudpot in Italy, microbiologists discovered a bizarre bacterium—the first known organism that couldn’t live without lanthanides. To help it feed on methane, Methylacidiphilum fumariolicum relies on a methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) enzyme that has a rare-earth element such as cerium or lanthanum at its heart.

Now, Eric J. Schelter of the University of Pennsylvania has made a complex that mimics the enzyme’s active site, shedding light on the lanthanide’s crucial role in the microbe’s metabolism

Lanthanide ions have very poor bioavailability, because they tend to precipitate out of neutral water. But in the hot, acidic conditions of the Solfatara volcanic crater on the outskirts of Naples, hardy microbes have access to a rare-earth smorgasbord at concentrations of 2–3 µM. Indeed, M. fumariolicum depends on a supply of lanthanides to thrive (Environ. Microbiol. 2013, DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12249). “I remember when I first heard about this, and I was just stunned,” says Rachel N. Austin of Barnard College, a metalloprotein expert who was not involved in the research.

MDH converts methanol into formaldehyde, a key step in methane metabolism. The enzyme contains a pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) cofactor, which is normally bound to a calcium ion. In M. fumariolicum, though, X-ray crystallography has shown that a lanthanide ion takes calcium’s place.

To understand exactly how the lanthanide-MDH works, Schelter’s team developed a model compound that was much easier to manipulate than the enzyme itself. PQQ can bind to metal ions in many different ways, so the researchers created a more obedient stand-in without pyrrole or carboxylic acid groups, and with bulky cyclohexyl groups, to ensure it coordinated with a lanthanum ion in the right way. The resulting complex converted a benzyl alcohol—a convenient substitute for methanol—into its aldehyde and did so catalytically with the help of additional oxidant and base.

Density functional theory calculations based on the model complex helped the team to figure out the reaction mechanism, which involved a hydride transfer step. Schelter says that the lanthanum ion lowers the activation barriers to key intermediates in the mechanism, because it is better at accepting electron pairs from the ligand than calcium. “The bug is getting something better out of using the rare earths,” he says.

Austin says that model studies like this can help to address a fundamental question in biology: Do enzymes simply adopt the most available metal ions, or is nature more selective than that? Schelter’s model suggests that using a lanthanide in MDH, rather than calcium, could have given the mudpot bacteria an evolutionary advantage.

Meanwhile, M. fumariolicum is no longer unique. Last year, studies on water samples from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 suggested that microbes feasting on methane released during the disaster had been using lanthanide-MDH (Sci. Rep. 2017, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-11060-z). Even leaf-dwelling bacteria found on the campus of San Jose State University apparently use lanthanum with their MDH (Science 2015, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa9091). “The microbiologists are finding these things everywhere,” Schelter says. “I think we’re just at the beginning of this story.”

A report by climate change policy think tanks Sandbag and Agora Energiewende shows that renewables generated more energy than coal in 2017.

According to their calculations, renewables as a whole were up from 29.8% to 30% of the EU’s energy mix in 2017. Hydroelectricity was the only green source that was down, at 9.1% from 10.9% in 2016. The numbers come from EUROSTAT and estimates modelled on ENTSO-E monthly and hourly data.

Out of the three renewable sources that did see growth, biomass saw the least at only 3%, which equates to another 5 terawatt hours in production. Wind saw the biggest increase at 19%, with solar at 8%.

For the last three years Germany and the UK are responsible for 56% of the growth in the renewables sector, the report said. Another trend was western Europe slowly phasing out coal, with the east keeping their plants.

The NGOs estimate that EU carbon emissions will remain unchanged for the power sector, and a rise for the region as a whole. The report identified the EU’s cap-and-trade system, the Emissions Trading Scheme, as ineffective, saying that it was not fit for purpose due to the ‘cap’ in the cap-and-trade of emissions being 9% higher than actual emissions in 2017.