Lithium News

A team of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new way to generate electricity using ocean waves. In their paper published in the journal One Earth, the group describes how their new device works and how well it compared to other wave power devices.

Over the past several years, solar, geothermal and wind power have dominated the news surrounding the development of alternative energy sources. One source has been noticeably lagging—wave power. The world’s oceans and large lakes produce waves, which scientist have noticed could be used to generate electricity. Unfortunately, thus far, such efforts have not proven cost-effective. Current systems generally involve using wave action to push magnets through coils, which turns out to be bulky and expensive, not to mention inefficient. In this new effort, the team in China has taken a whole new approach to the problem—using waves to generate static electricity.

Other researchers have tried to engineer devices that can create static electricity using other types of movement, such as clothes or a backpack or even socks. But thus far, no products based on this approach have made it to market. In this new effort, the researchers are looking at a much larger device, one modeled after the anaconda snake.

In their approach they built multiple small nanogenerators that float on the surface of the ocean. Each of the nanogenerators are linked together using a flexible connector. Static electricity generated by all of the nanogenerators is then pooled to be tapped and used as a power source The nanogenerators have spring-like coils inside of them with parts that rub up against one another as the device is moved by waves—the touching parts generate static electricity, just like socks in a dryer.

Testing of their idea showed it capable of generating 347 watts of power per cubic meter, which they note is approximately 30 times better than other designs geared to reap electricity from waves. More work will need to be done on their system, however, before it could be put to commercial use. How to keep the coils from wearing away, for example, would need to be resolved.

Seeing is believing—or, rather, seeing can aid in understanding, especially when it comes to the mechanisms underpinning lithium-ion batteries. Despite near-ubiquitous use in cell phones, computers and more, the complex electrochemical environments of lithium-ion batteries remain murky.

To better understand and to improve battery performance, researchers examined the current scientific literature and used electron microscopy to take a closer look at the charge-transfer and lithium-ion migration mechanisms that produce power. This study was published in Nano Research Energy.

“Commercial lithium-ion batteries are widely used as energy storage devices, including electric vehicles, portable electronics and grid energy storage,” said Yi Ding, a professor of Tianjin University of Technology. “Energy, power, charge-discharge rate, cost, cycle life, safety and environmental impact are to be considered while adopting lithium-ion batteries for a suitable application, but each specific application faces a variety of different challenges.”

The amount of energy stored is important for portable electronics, while cost and safety are more important for electric vehicles, for example. Cost and safety are also important for energy grid needs, but energy density becomes less so than for electric vehicles. The trade-off between these elements shift based on need, but the ability to tune performance is limited by incomplete understanding of the materials used in batteries.

“The active electrode materials are the main portion responsible for the cell chemistry and performance and, ultimately, affect the commercialization of the constructed battery,” Ding said.

“The performances, such as cycle life and energy density, of existing commercial electrode material systems still need to be improved, so it is important to understand the inherent physical and chemical properties, such as structural evolution/kinetics during lithium de-embedding and the effect of electrode-electrolyte interface on the performance of lithium-ion batteries.”

The researchers reviewed recent advances in electron microscopy to see how traditional characterization techniques measure up when it comes to understanding the structure-activity relationships of commercial lithium-ion batteries.

“By comparing with the characterization content obtained by traditional characterization techniques, such as X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we illustrate the advantages and limitations of common electronic microscopes and recently developed advanced electronic microscopic characterization techniques, such as in situ electron microscopy technology, in this critical research,” Ding said.

The researchers examined how advanced electron microscopy and the associated characterization techniques can provide different insights into how, for example, lithium ions migrate in the battery to produce charge or how charge transfer can trigger energy use.

They specifically focused on transition metal dissolution and charge transfer mechanism in the charging-discharging process of lithium-ion battery positive electrodes; the structure and evolution of cathode-electrode interfaces and solid electrolyte interphase during long-term cycling; and the effect of electrode structure and interface on lithium-ion migration.

The conclusion, according to Ding, is that next-generation lithium-ion battery technologies with better cost and performance benefits are needed.

“We propose the possibility of combining electron microscopy with other techniques to obtain more comprehensive information,” Ding said, noting that electron microscopy has three common limitations in battery assessment.

These include inconsistent electrochemical environments between electron microscopy fields and actual batteries; unstable time windows that can skew data related to evolution of the sample; and certain batteries cannot be quantitatively assessed at the nanoscale. “Even with limitations, these discussions allow researchers to gain a deeper understanding of how commercial lithium-ion batteries operate at the microscale and provide guidance for design strategies for high-performance practical batteries,” the researchers noted.

The surge in prices of lithium, the key battery material used to power electric cars, is seemingly unstoppable.

Lithium carbonate hit a fresh record of 500,500 yuan ($71,315) a ton in China Friday, according to data from Asian Metal Inc. Prices more than tripled in the past year, inflating the cost of batteries used in electric vehicles, with recent gains driven by strong demand and disruptions at a domestic producing hub.

Consumer support for new-energy vehicles has been gathering pace amid a global transition away from fossil fuels. The China Passenger Car Association has raised its forecast for sales of EVs to a record 6 million this year, double the total in 2021, while battery usage in the nation is also expected to almost double, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Meanwhile, a power crunch during August in Sichuan province — home to more than one-fifth of China’s lithium production — caused two weeks of electricity cuts, hampering supply in an already-squeezed market.

“EV production and sales have held steady in recent months,” according to Rystad Energy, a research firm, which added there are concerns over whether China’s power crisis could return this winter when demand for heating rises. “This could lead to new power shortages and hit lithium operations,” it wrote, expecting prices to stay firm around this level through to the end of the year.

China held a meeting to review developments on Thursday and asked the top companies to help stabilize prices, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Producers should not collude on pricing and not quote prices that deviate a lot from costs, it said. The government will take steps to encourage exploration, stabilize imports and promote recycling, it added.

On Thursday, Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA, the world’s No. 2 lithium producer, predicted a “very tight market” in the years ahead. SQM sees “slightly higher” prices this quarter from the previous three months and expects prices to stay at similar levels in the fourth quarter, according to a presentation to investors in New York.

Battery-makers and the automobile industry have been rushing to lock in reliable and stable supplies of lithium. Still, the raw-material price hikes are likely to stoke inflation concerns and add cost pressures to the supply chain.

A battery-making unit of China’s top producer, Ganfeng Lithium Co., told customers last week that prices for new orders would be reassessed amid a substantial hike in power-cell costs. The company supplies small polymer lithium batteries for smart wearable products and Bluetooth headset batteries for companies including Xiaomi Corp.

The future of battery-powered cars depends on lithium.

And now San Diego-based EnergySource Minerals has partnered with Compass Minerals to extract the metal from supplies of brine water in Utah.

EnergySource is licensing its technology to Compass, which wants to operate a lithium mine on the Great Salt Lake. EnergySource calls it a step toward creating an American industry that will meet the soaring demand for lithium batteries in electric vehicles.

“I think we’re all trying to support each other to support this EV revolution that is coming,” said EnergySource President and CEO Eric Spomer. “The demand is just huge.”

EnergySource’s technology is called Direct Lithium Extraction, or DLE, and it mines the resource by running salty brine through a filter that absorbs the metal. It’s the technology they plan to deploy at a plant being built along the Salton Sea.

Spomer said EnergySource intends to capture underground brine water at its plant and pump it back below ground after lithium is taken from it. He said this method is much better for the environment than evaporation ponds or open-pit mines. Both of those methods are used world-wide as a means of lithium mining.

“This will be the cleanest lithium in the world,” Spomer said. “From every measure. Water use, land use, emissions. It doesn’t get any cleaner than this.”

Spomer added that extracting lithium from underground brine water is an effective secondary use of geothermal plants in Imperial County. EnergySource has long operated a geothermal energy plant there. The boiling hot water that runs turbines and produces geothermal energy is the same water that will be filtered for its deposits of lithium.

Spomer said he expects the Imperial Valley to become a major source of the valuable metal.

“I think it will happen,” he said. “I think we are going to prove it and we’ll be happy to help others to cause the Salton Sea to be developed as a power resource and a huge lithium resource.”

Spomer expects his company’s facility will ultimately mine 20,000 tons of lithium per year.

Soon you’ll be able to say goodbye to gas-powered generators and storage batteries if you want to power your home during a utility outage.

Your backup power source will be sitting in your driveway or garage, ready to keep your lights on, your fridge cold and your air conditioner blowing.

Best of all, your power source will run silently, emit no dangerous exhaust, and be capable of safely running inside or outside during hurricanes and for at least a couple days afterward while your utility works to restore power.

Electric vehicles with bidirectional charging capabilities are starting to hit the market as the auto industry transitions away from internal combustion engines. Just a handful of vehicles with so-called Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) capabilities are available now—and require costly aftermarket gear—but industry analysts expect their numbers to increase as more EVs come to market.

“It’s still evolving because you don’t have standard technologies to do this,” says Seth Blumsack, co-director of the Penn State University Center for Energy, Law and Policy. “It’s not as ‘plug-and-play’ as you might want.”

Bidirectional charging, as the term implies, is the capability to both receive and send power, and its availability in electric vehicles could provide a valuable layer of security to homeowners as severe weather events become more frequent and destructive.

One of the few vehicles with bidirectional charging capability is also one of the nation’s best-selling trucks: Ford’s F-150 pickup. The new electric version, called the F-150 Lightning, is targeted to truck owners who haven’t been enticed by small electric sedans and crossover SUVs.

In addition to touting its big-truck size and towing capacity, Ford is promoting the Lightning’s ability to provide power to homes during outages as a added value, Blumsack said. “It’s going to have a lot of appeal to those who live in areas where the grid is vulnerable to disruption from hurricanes or severe winter weather.”

‘More than just an EV’

Ford spokeswoman Debra Hotaling said Ford intended the F-150 Lightning to be more than just an electric vehicle. “It had to provide compelling features and fun that went way beyond how it’s powered,” she said by email. “Bidirectional power is part of that. We debuted it on the F-150 Lightning and customers are telling us it gives great comfort knowing the truck can seamlessly supply power in an outage.”

Since Ford began taking orders for the vehicle in August 2021, Sawgrass Ford in Sunrise, Florida, has sold more than 400, including 200 during its first week of availability, said David Menten, owner of the dealership.

Four models are available. Prices range from around $42,000 for the base model to just under $94,000 for the Platinum version currently on display on Sawgrass Ford’s showroom floor.

High demand and supply-chain issues plaguing the global automobile industry has forced buyers to wait as long as a year for delivery, but that hasn’t hurt sales, Menten said. “I don’t think Ford expected to sell as many as it has,” he said. “Now they’re building them as fast as possible.”

Ford is betting that once Lightning owners become acquainted with the truck’s ability to share its batteries’ stored power, they will make an additional investment in the components needed to feed that power back to their homes when needed, Menten said.

The Lightning can provide some power without owners having to buy anything extra. It comes standard with USB ports for personal electronic devices and eight 110-volt outlets that can run power tools and other job-site machinery. Homeowners can run extension cords into those outlets during outages if they’re content to run just a few things at a time, like a small fridge, a couple of lights, a fan and a TV.

This is a common feature of electric vehicles. A growing number come with 110-volt outlets, and consumers can buy adapters to add outlets to vehicles not sold with them.

The Lightning goes much further: It also comes with an EV charging plug outlet that can charge other electric vehicles, including Teslas, if they become stranded.

Ford says the truck can store enough power to run an entire house for three days. That, of course, depends on the size of the house and what needs to be powered. The standard-range battery can store 98 kilowatt hours and the optional extended-range battery stores 131 kWh. Typical houses consume about 30 kWh a day, but that’s tough to maintain if a house is running a central air conditioner, computers, TVs, washer and dryer and other comforts. You might have to make choices.

You’ll need to install extras

To power your entire house, you’ll need to purchase a few additional components and hire an electrician.

First, you’ll need Ford’s Charge Station Pro, a home charging port which costs about $1,310 but comes standard on extended range models, according to a May story in Car and Driver. The Charge Station Pro is an 80-ampere device that can charge the truck in eight hours, compared to the 30 hours required to charge with a typical 110-volt outlet.

You’ll also need a Home Integration System that converts high-current DC from the Charge Station Pro into AC power needed by your house. It costs $3,895 and connects between your home’s utility power meter and your main power panel. Before drawing power from the truck, it disconnects your home from the grid.

Installation costs will depend on your home’s current setup, whether your panel needs to be upgraded, and how much cable must be installed to reach the charging port.

To handle installation of the Home Integration System, Ford is partnering with Sunrun, a nationwide solar system installer. Sunrun can pair the Home Integration System with solar panels because the system can also function as an inverter for the panels, transferring power generated by the solar panels to the Lightning battery to extend the amount of time that the truck can power the house.

In such a setup, the Lightning serves as the solar panels’ battery storage system. If used regularly, the setup can reduce the amount of power that homeowners need to purchase from the grid.

That’s the setup that Delray Beach resident Glen Hammer is considering in lieu of adding storage batteries to his rooftop solar system.

It comes with several advantages, Hammer said by email.

“I need an auto anyway, so although more expensive than a standard gas-burning vehicle, it would act as the back-up instead of a generator or battery array,” he said, adding that the vehicle and inverter would rival the cost of storage batteries or a whole-house generator.

“I can fuel up for pennies as my solar roof would keep the battery charged. So I would avoid the $3.50 a gallon problem we are facing. This is great, as we may not have an annual hurricane, but we will always need energy for cars. A generator is only usable during an outage. This would be usable constantly.”

Another advantage, he said, is “I would be further supporting clean energy.”

The EV industry is watching

Only a few other vehicles currently have bidirectional charging capabilities when paired with inverters from various third-party manufacturers. They include the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, according to the website cleanenergyreviews.info. Volkswagen’s ID.4 will include the feature beginning with the 2022 model year, Car and Driver reported.

Tesla, the world’s most popular electric vehicle, has not yet announced bidirectional capabilities for its products, but Blumsack says the company is likely working on it.

Another potential application for bidirectional charging is storage from the grid. EV owners served by utilities that charge less for electricity during hours of low demand could charge their cars when power is cheapest, then sell back to the grid when prices are highest and turn a profit. Such a plan, which could help utilities serve the increased demand that will accompany wider acceptance of electric vehicles, would depend on utilities’ willingness to pay a premium for power stored in customers’ EV batteries.

Blumsack expects it will take a couple of years before home charging becomes an affordable and common feature of electric vehicles.

“If the Lightning shows itself to be capable of doing what Ford claims and manufacturers get lower-cost options for the garage charging stations into the hands of consumers, my guess is other EV makers will be looking with interest at the Lightning and saying, ‘How do we do this?’ “

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August will bring with it historic new spending to address climate change. Some are predicting large drops in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions as a result. However, for that to happen, the rollout of the law will have to go smoothly, and at the moment that is far from guaranteed. Instead, there are likely to be significant speedbumps as this law gets implemented in the years ahead.

Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than with the provisions related to electric vehicles (EVs) and their battery components and critical minerals, especially those that pertain to lithium. Lithium is used in electronic devices’ batteries, including those found in EVs, and also the laptops and cellphones Americans rely on everyday.

The IRA makes a number of significant changes with respect to federal subsidies for EVs. First, an annual cap on the number of clean vehicles that may qualify for a $7,500 tax credit has been lifted, which means some EV and plug-in hybrid purchases will receive the credit going forward, which wouldn’t otherwise. After 2023, credits won’t apply to some more expensive vehicles, and there will also be new income limits, limiting who qualifies for a rebate. Additionally, used EVs will qualify for up to a $4,000 rebate, assuming other eligibility restrictions don’t apply.

Requirements Affecting Lithium

Another significant change is that final assembly of clean vehicles qualifying for the tax credit will have to take place in North America, and critical minerals used in batteries, including lithium, are going to have to be sourced from either North America or U.S. trading partners. Beginning in 2024, minerals or components sourced from “foreign entities of concern” like Russia and China will make vehicles ineligible for subsidies.

The critical mineral requirements found in the IRA are phased in gradually. Starting in 2024, 40% of critical minerals found in EV batteries will have to be extracted or processed in the United States or countries with which it has free trade agreements; or, they will have to have been recycled in North America. That percentage rises to 80% by the end of 2026. Also starting in 2024, 50% of battery components will have to be manufactured or assembled in North America, with this number rising to 100% by the end of 2028.

Meeting these targets will likely mean higher prices for consumers, as vehicle manufacturers are discouraged from using cheaper foreign components and labor. However, a much bigger question facing automobile manufacturers is whether they can meet these targets at all.

Currently, the amount of lithium produced in the United States is relatively small, leading the U.S. to be a large importer of this mineral. That has the potential to change, but will depend heavily on changes in technology, policy as well as public attitudes. Across the world, lithium tends to be concentrated in a small number of countries, and, with the exception of Australia, these tend not to be countries with free trade agreements that meet the standards set forth in the IRA.

Some Background on Lithium Markets

As of 2022, the United States has only one domestic producer of lithium. This is Silver Peak, a brine operation site run by AlbemarleALB +3% Corporation in Esmeralda County, Nevada. This too could change. For example, the Salton Sea is a landlocked lake located north of the California-Mexico border. The California Energy Commission estimates there could be enough dissolved lithium in the geothermal brines in the Salton Sea to meet 40% of world lithium demand. However, extracting this lithium is a complicated, technologically-involved process that is at least partially unproven. At a minimum, it could take years before any lithium comes to market.

With domestic production limited, U.S. imports of lithium have skyrocketed since the early 1980s, up from about 80 metric tons in 1984 to over 2,600 tons in 2019 (with a lot of fluctuation in between). The increased demand has, not surprisingly, been accompanied by higher prices. One price spike occurred around 2016 and a more substantial one (which shows no sign of stopping) began in 2020. The IRA could contribute to further price pressures.

Along with higher prices, lithium production has been rising sharply in recent years. Known reserves began to increase in 2008. At first, new reserves did not correspond with a jump in production. That began to change around 2016, coincident with the price spike that occurred around that time. Since 2016, production has ramped up dramatically.

The increases in supply have largely come from Australia, Chile, and China. Of these, Chile has by far the largest reserves, possessing nearly 40% of the world’s total. However, Australia produces more lithium than Chile. Argentina and Bolivia also have the potential to compete in this space, but it will be a while before they are major players, if that happens at all.

For example, Bolivia has struggled to take advantage of its natural resource wealth after a botched nationalization effort in 2008. According to one Wall Street Journal report, “In 2021, Bolivia produced just 540 tons of lithium carbonate … or what Chile produces in a day and a half.” Mexico also recently nationalized its lithium mining and extraction activities and is in the process of setting up a state-run public utility to manage these operations for the government.

Many investors are hoping Argentina will fare better, but creating a reliable legal environment and protections for foreign investment will be critical for success. According to the Department of Energy, 90% of U.S. lithium imports came from Argentina and Chile from 2016 to 2019. However, Chile may be in early stages of a reversal of fortune as indigenous groups are organizing to oppose many new projects.

Looking Forward

Australia—currently the world’s largest lithium producer—may stand to benefit most from the Inflation Reduction Act, at least in the short term, given its status as a reliable U.S. trading partner and a country known to have strong property rights. Meanwhile, as of 2021, U.S. lithium reserves stood at just 4% of the world’s total, but that is without yet unlocking the untapped potential of the Salton Sea. Recycling of old battery components represents another source of opportunity in the United States.

For the time being, the global lithium landscape is shrouded in uncertainty. Public pushback against mining could become a major factor affecting whether the U.S. can meet its goals under the IRA. Pressures on prices and production are sure to mount if demand trends continue on their present course and supply remains constrained by political and social forces. Some of these forces will be out of the control of domestic policymakers, but one thing is for sure: expect to hear more about this issue in the months and years ahead.