Lithium News

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is preparing to give Rio Tinto the green light to develop Europe’s largest lithium mine two years after Belgrade called off the project, the Financial Times said on Sunday.

Vucic told the newspaper that “new guarantees” from the global mining giant and the European Union looked set to address Serbia’s concerns over whether necessary environmental standards would be met at the Jadar site in the west of the country.

Rio Tinto said in a statement emailed to Reuters: “We believe the Jadar project has the potential to be a world-class asset that could act as a catalyst for developing an EV (electric vehicle) value chain in Serbia”.

Regarded as a critical material by the EU and the United States, lithium is used in batteries for EVs and mobile devices.

“If we deliver on everything, (the mine) might be open in 2028” Vucic told the FT, adding that the mine was projected to produce 58,000 tons of lithium per year which would be “enough for 17% of EV production in Europe — approximately 1.1 million cars.”

In 2022, Belgrade revoked licences for Rio’s $2.4 billion Jadar project after massive environmental protests. If completed, the project could supply 90% of Europe’s current lithium needs and help to make the company a leading lithium producer.

In 2021 and 2022 Serbian environmentalists collected 30,000 signatures in a petition demanding that parliament enact legislation to halt lithium exploration in the country.

Tesla’s battery energy storage systems (BESS) in China are expected to consist of LFP lithium-ion battery cells from both CATL and BYD.

According to LatePost (via CnEVPost), BYD’s FinDreams battery unit has secured a contract for more than 20% of Tesla’s anticipated BESS manufacturing capacity in China. The remaining 80% of batteries will likely come from CATL.

Tesla started construction of its BESS factory (also known as the Megafactory) in the Lingang area of Pudong, Shanghai, in May, with a plan to start production in Q1 2025. Shanghai is also the home of Tesla’s Gifafactory Shanghai, which makes the Model 3 and Model Y for global markets including China and the EU.

The factory is expected to produce up to 10,000 Tesla Megapack utility-scale battery energy storage systems annually. That’s up to 40 GWh of batteries. BYD’s contribution—reportedly 20% of the overall output—would represent 8 GWh per year.

Tesla already has one BESS factory in Lathrop, California, which the company says will soon provide 40 GWh of annual output. In Q1 2024, the company’s total battery energy storage system deployments exceeded 4 GWh.

A single Megapack container has roughly 3 megawatt-hours of capacity. Companies can order and install multiple units to achieve hundreds of MWh or even GWh-scale systems depending on their needs.

With one Megafactory in the U.S. and one in China, it’s an open question when we will see a similar investment in Europe. The European market for battery energy storage systems is expanding, so a large factory in the area would be a natural development.

Shortly after commencing production on its new semi-solid-state battery packs, Chinese automaker Nio announced it would open up trials of its new tech to the public ahead of its official rollout in the country, as Electrek reported.

This is exciting news, as semi-solid-state batteries are still relatively new on the EV market, and they offer a much safer, lighter, and more energy-dense battery product.

The technology differs from the common lithium-ion version by using a solid electrolyte material in conjunction with the liquid or gel electrolytes usually found in the batteries. This gives them greater thermal stability, which allows for faster recharging.

Testing ran through May and applied primarily to users of the company’s vehicle rental service, Nio Destination. According to Electrek, customers who rented a Nio BEV for three days were some of the first to test the semi-solid state battery tech at no extra charge.

Other lucky Nio EV users received the upgrade at random when they visited a Nio Power charging and swapping station. Instead of plugging in and waiting, these novel service locations take only three minutes to swap in a new, fully charged battery.

This gives the company a useful platform to test the new technology in the real world. As of August 2022, Nio had 1,071 swap stations throughout China and around 20 scattered throughout Europe, although those will primarily serve as complementary public charging solutions for now.

Other automakers have also signed deals to explore and develop similar products, including Toyota, Mercedes, and Volkswagen, according to PCMag.

CATL, another well-known battery maker, also has a semi-solid-state battery heading into production. While the Nio version aims to provide 360 watt-hours per kilogram, CATL plans to target 500 watt-hours per kilogram.

In parallel with the emergence of semi-solid-state battery production, some companies are working to build recycling processes. Earlier this year, Massachusetts-based 24M announced its Liforever technology set, which is designed to recover and reuse materials that have previously been discarded.

The company’s CEO, Naoki Ota, stated, “Better battery recycling is essential for a sustainable energy future.”

All of this exciting progress in battery technology should ultimately alleviate consumers’ range anxiety, undoubtedly making it easier for more people to make their next car an EV.

Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto said on Thursday newly published environmental studies showed that its Serbia lithium project, which was stopped in 2022 after massive protests, would be safe for the environment.

If implemented, the $2.4 billion Jadar lithium project in Western Serbia could cover 90% of Europe’s current lithium needs and help to make the company a leading lithium producer.

Lithium, largely used in batteries for electric vehicles (EV) and mobile devices, is regarded as a critical material by many major economies.

On Thursday, Rio’s Serbian unit made public several environmental studies conducted over the past six and a half years.

“Results of scientific research show that the Jadar project can be realized safely by respecting highest domestic and international environmental standards,” the company said in a statement.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in January authorities wanted to hold further talks with Rio about the project and welcomed public discussion on whether it should go ahead.

Just ahead of the country’s 2022 general elections, Serbian leaders revoked Rio’s licence for the project, bowing to a 30,000-signature-petition from environmental groups and local communities.

Green activists say the mine will pollute water supply, causing more environmental damage in Serbia, already one of Europe’s most polluted countries.

Rio’s representative in Serbia, Marijanti Babic, said in Thursday’s statement that the company had published studies in order to “renew a public dialogue” about the project.

“These studies give an opportunity to local community and all interested parties to see for themselves what had been done so far.”

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, who took over last month after December’s parliamentary election, told state RTS TV that he was open to talks about resuming the project.

“I am expecting the answer from experts – if experts say no, then it is no, but they have to be aware of their responsibility,” Vucevic said.

“I believe it is possible to exploit natural resources and preserve nature’s wealth and people above all. I think this (lithium project) is a historical chance.”

Electric vehicles that use high-power charging are quickly becoming the new standard—understanding the grid impacts of high-power charging will ensure intergrid reliability and keep charging costs low.

High-power charging is quickly becoming the new standard for electric vehicles (EVs). At 200 kilowatts (kW) and above, high-power charging is expected to help drivers spend less time charging, get back on the road faster, and travel longer distances. Creating a widespread network of reliable and interoperable high-power charging stations, however, is still elusive, as the technology’s enormous power requirements are more complex than charging light-duty electric passenger vehicles at 40 kW to 50 kW and more dependent on battery conditions.

Enter the Next-Generation Profiles (NextGen Profiles) project, a signature project of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Electric Vehicles at Scale Consortium (EVs@Scale Lab Consortium) of national laboratories.

Through the NextGen Profiles project, researchers are taking critical steps to assess EVs and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) that are expected to utilize high-power charging. Importantly, this includes understanding how high-power charging systems respond to grid disturbances and smart-charge-management scenarios, as well as analyzing how electric fleets perform in those situations.

NextGen Profiles is a collaborative EVs@Scale Lab Consortium project led by Argonne National Laboratory, with coprincipal investigators from Idaho National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Original equipment manufacturers, industry stakeholders, and EV suppliers also partner with the four national laboratories to evaluate EV assets and refine validation procedures.

“The data that we’re collecting for NextGen Profiles addresses a lot of the challenges associated with vehicle electrification,” said NREL’s Keith Davidson, a lead principal investigator for the NextGen Profiles project. “Chief among those is charging reliability and keeping chargers operating consistently.”

Technical approach bakes in planning, integration, and reliability considerations

Paramount to a seamless EV charging experience is balancing safety, charging performance, and EV battery longevity. Within those requirements, the NextGen Profiles project helps identify high-power charging system limitations, the characteristics of high-power charging sessions (called “profiles”), and issues that the power grid will likely encounter.

“Ultimately, the project seeks to develop a knowledge base that will inform high-power charging infrastructure planning, integrate storage and renewables, and ensure that the transition to EVs is reliable and affordable,” Davidson said.

To achieve these goals, the NextGen Profiles project focuses on three key research areas. The first area captures EV profiles by collecting data on how EVs behave while charging. Researchers examine how diverse charging conditions affect EVs and how these profiles compare to different vehicle classes (e.g., medium- and heavy-duty vehicles) and charging types (e.g., conductive and wireless). Taken together, the data paints a holistic picture of the performance of current EV technologies and the trajectory of the industry.

The second area characterizes electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE)—the equipment needed to charge EVs. This work involves connecting a high-power charging system to an EV emulator and running them through charging scenarios. One of the most important investigations encompasses an assessment of the entire range of current and voltage outputs that a charging system provides.

The sum of these currents and voltages are not yet attainable by most vehicles, but the emulation capability has enabled researchers to achieve those levels, understand how the systems perform, and formulate strategies for systems to handle the high-power charging needs of the future.

Characterization of EVSE also incorporates grid disturbance analysis and charge management analysis. This has included researchers subjecting charging stations to repeated high-power charging cycles to illuminate thermal management needs based on how the EVSE recovers in between high-power charge sessions.

Last year, researchers from the US and Canada reported in PLOS ONE creating electrical batteries from ice. The electrical output is modest, just 0.1 milliwatt. But this may be a sign of good things to come. The scientists worked over the course of two seasons to design and produce electrochemical cells that will work to generate electricity.

Dr. Daniel Helman and Dr. Matthew Retallack met at the European Consortium for Political Research in Montreal, Canada in 2015. Helman was presenting ideas about solar panels from ice, and Retallack was the discussant of the session.

“I think there was a mutual respect and love of research,” says Helman. They went on to develop different prototypes. The model that finally won out uses acid to create a difference in pH between two layers of ice plus a few additives.

The most mobile charge carrier in ice is the proton, so it makes sense to think of protons traveling from one layer to the other because of the pH difference. The travel of charged particles is how batteries generate electricity.

In this case, table salt, kaolinite clay and monopotassium phosphate help to donate or receive charged particles, along with muriatic acid (HCl). A mesh screen and sheet aluminum were used as the electrodes.

The materials used in the experiments are all commonly available, and commonly regarded as safe. It makes one wonder what would be possible using more optimized materials. Moreover, photosensitive particles added in can probably produce dye-sensitized solar cells.

The original experiments for dye-sensitized solar cells used chlorophyll taken from spinach to change local pH in response to sunlight. While the electrical output may be small, the point is not lost that large swaths of land at high latitudes might be available.

Fields, lakes or other open land might be safely put to good use in humanity’s quest to transition away from fossil fuels. The additives in this experiment were chosen for their relative safety in the environment.

The generation of electricity from ice also sheds light on one of the more enduring questions facing science right now. Where did life come from? Current thought is that organisms originated either in small ponds near volcanic, geothermal fields, or near mid-ocean ridges. But there is a problem. RNA gets diluted without a membrane, and then cannot act as a catalyst.

An icy setting solves this problem. RNA may remain concentrated in small regions on, for example, the ice of a comet or meteorite. Thus, generation of electricity from ice could provide a proto-metabolism for the start of organismal development with self-catalyzing RNA on such icy meteorites (like the Murchison meteorite) or on an early Snowball Earth.

Both of these ideas are not so far fetched. Solar panels from ice may be useful in some settings. And an icy worlds hypothesis for the origin of life may explain why we don’t see any of the early stages here on Earth now.

Dr. Helman is currently a visiting assistant professor of Environmental Studies at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Dr. Retallack ran the experiments while at Carleton University in Toronto.