Lithium News

The United States should boost domestic production of 35 critical minerals including uranium, cobalt and lithium, to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers, the Interior Department said on Friday.

Aluminum and potash are also on Interior’s draft list of 35 critical materials used in basic manufacturing, batteries and electronics. It was the department’s first step to carry out a presidential order issued in December to break U.S. dependence on foreign minerals.

Lithium and cobalt are vital components of the rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles, sparking battery makers and auto companies, such as Tesla Inc and Volkswagen AG , to hunt for long-term supplies of the minerals.

“Any shortage of these resources constitutes a strategic vulnerability for the security and prosperity of the United States,” said Tim Petty, assistant secretary of the Interior for water and science.

The administration wants to identify new domestic sources of critical minerals; increase domestic exploration, mining and recycling; give miners and producers electronic access to better mapping and geological data; and streamline leasing and permitting for new mines.

The department will seek public comment on the list until March 19.

The goal of boosting domestic production of non-fuel minerals and fossil fuel resources is part of the Trump administration’s America First policy, which seeks to boost U.S. exports while seeking to curb imports using tariffs and other protectionist measures.

On Friday, the Commerce Department recommended tariffs on steel and aluminum, raising fears among some observers of a trade war.

The Commerce Department is also weighing a petition from two domestic U.S. uranium producers to curb imports from Russia and Central Asia to lift the domestic uranium industry.

Rules regulating smart bags are getting even more complicated.

In January, new smart bag policies went into effect on a number of major airlines. Because lithium-ion batteries have a record of sometimes overheating and exploding, airlines are particularly concerned with keeping them as accessible as possible — and that means away from the cargo hold and removed from suitcases.

In addition to outright banning luggage with non-removable lithium-ion batteries, airlines now generally require that removable batteries be detached from both checked as well as carry-on suitcases, and kept easily reachable at all times.

For this reason, travelers need to remove lithium batteries from their smart suitcases prior to boarding.

The Los Angeles Times reported that smart luggage brand Away had recently received complaints from travelers that they were not allowed to stow loose lithium-ion batteries in the overhead compartment during Delta flights.

In a memo sent to staff, Away co-founder Steph Korey cited incidents involving “hundreds of customers.” But Delta’s detailed policy does not say anything about keeping lithium-ion batteries out of overhead storage bins.

“The primary focus [of the policy],” a Delta spokesperson told Travel + Leisure, “is that the removable battery be made more accessible than if it was kept in its designed enclosure.”

The spokesperson added that many smart luggage batteries, while removable, might require a specific set of tools to separate the battery from the bag.

Delta’s lithium battery policy, while requiring that the battery be removed from the bag, also urges travelers to “place each battery in its own protective case, plastic bag, or package” or to “place tape across the battery’s contacts to isolate terminals.”

Passengers flying with Delta should also be sure that lithium batteries are insulated, and stored far from any other batteries, metal, or flammable objects.

Travelers should note that Delta’s policy is nearly identical to other major domestic carriers, including United and American Airlines.

To ensure you don’t run into any problems while traveling with smart bags (or, you know, your spare lithium-ion batteries) be sure to separate any battery from your suitcase before boarding and clearly insulate it in a plastic bag.

A new precise and direct test of the internal temperatures of lithium-ion batteries and their electrode potential shows that the batteries can be safely charged up to five times faster than the current recommended charging limits.

A team from the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick has created the new test, which works in-situ during a battery’s normal operation without impeding its performance.

The researchers tested the new technology on standard commercially available batteries, which could enable advancements in battery materials science, flexible battery charging rates, and thermal and electrical engineering of new battery materials and technology.

Manufactures often stipulate a maximum charging rate or intensity for batteries based on what they think are the crucial temperature and potential levels to avoid. However, they were unable to test the internal temperature of a battery without significantly affecting the overall performance.

Manufacturers have had to rely on a limited, external instrumentation, where they were unable to provide precise readings. This led manufacturers to passing very conservative limits on maximum charging speed or intensity to ensure the battery is not damaged or suffering from catastrophic failure.

“This could bring huge benefits to areas such as motor racing which would gain obvious benefits from being able to push the performance limits, but it also creates massive opportunities for consumers and energy storage providers,” Tazdin Amietszajew, PhD, the WMG researcher who led on this research, said in a statement. “Faster charging as always comes at the expense of overall battery life but many consumers would welcome the ability to charge a vehicle battery quickly when short journey times are required and then to switch to standard charge periods at other times.

“Having that flexibility in charging strategies might even/further down the line help consumers benefit from financial incentives from power companies seeking to balance grid supplies using vehicles connected to the grid. This technology is ready to apply now to commercial batteries but we would need to ensure that battery management systems on vehicles, and that the infrastructure being put in for electric vehicles, are able to accommodate variable charging rates that would include these new more precisely tuned profiles/limits.”

When a battery is over heated, it risks severe damage, particularly to its electrolyte. This could also result in dangerous situations where the electrolyte breaks down to form gases that are both flammable and cause significant pressure to build up.

Overcharging of the anode can lead to so much Lithium electroplating that it forms metallic dendrites and eventually pierces the separator, causing an internal short circuit with the cathode and subsequent catastrophic failure.

How it works

The new direct in-situ battery sensing employs miniature reference electrodes and Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBG) threaded through a bespoke strain protection layer.

The researchers then applied an outer skin of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) over the fiber, adding chemical protection from the corrosive electrolyte.

The device can then have direct contact with all the key parts of the battery and withstand electrical, chemical and mechanical stress inflicted during the batteries operation while still enabling precise temperature and potential readings.

It also has the potential to help the design of energy storage systems for high performance applications, including motor racing and grid balancing.

When Canadian fertiliser company PotashCorp acquired shares in Chile’s SQM almost 20 years ago, the latter’s lithium business appeared an afterthought.

Controlled by Julio Ponce, the well-connected son-in-law of Chile’s former dictator, Augusto Pinochet, SQM was known as a fertiliser company. However, the then obscure lithium business is why the 32 per cent stake is now valued at $4.7bn.

Lithium has hitched a stunning ride on the wave of interest in electric cars, making it one of the world’s hottest commodities. SQM’s lithium business generates about 60 per cent of the profits for the company, which is in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla over a deal to supply lithium, a key ingredient in electric car batteries.

It is against this backdrop that Potash is being forced by regulators to sell the stake as a condition of its merger with rival Canadian fertiliser producer Agrium. While only a handful of companies are likely to compete for the stake, the eventual price will be an important measure of how seriously the hype around electric cars is being taken.

“It’s a good barometer of where lithium is today,” Simon Moores, founder of London-based consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, says. “Anyone investing $5bn has to invest for the long term, on a 10- to 20-year horizon, and so there’s no doubt you have to be extremely bullish on lithium.”

The appeal of owning the stake is clear. It offers the buyer significant exposure to one of the lowest-cost producers of lithium in a country with the largest reserves of the metal in the world. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) accounts for more than 20 per cent of the world’s lithium supply, making it one of five companies that dominate the global market alongside China’s Ganfeng, Tianqi Lithium, FMC and Albemarle.

What is more, last month SQM and the Chilean regulator reached a deal that allowed it to more than quadruple its output by 2025, breaking with a previous practice in which SQM had to pour lithium-rich brine back into the desert to avoid exceeding its quota.

Those with a potential interest include Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto, according to people familiar with the matter. China’s Tianqi Lithium, which snapped up a 2 per cent stake in SQM for $38 a share in 2016, has also shown interest, they said. Chilean pension funds could also buy some of the shares, according to analysts.

However, analysts say the challenge for a buyer is twofold. Parting with several billion dollars requires taking as clear as possible a view on the future of electric cars, where hyperbole is common and forecasts vary wildly between optimism and caution.

The price for lithium carbonate from South America has more than doubled over the past two years to hit $14,500 a tonne, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. If electric vehicles reach 5 per cent of car and light truck sales globally by 2025 from their current level of 2 per cent, then lithium prices will fall to $6,900 a tonne by 2025, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

However, if that share, including plug-in hybrids, climbs to 12 per cent by 2025 lithium prices will remain at current levels and then move towards a long-term price of $13,600 a tonne, the consultancy forecasts.

Unlike commodities such as oil or copper, lithium is not traded on any exchange. Instead, pricing is set through long-term contracts with buyers or on the spot market in China, the world’s largest electric car market.

Wherever bidders end up sitting on the spectrum of forecasts, they will also be competing against a backdrop in which rising lithium prices have unleashed a surge in supply. Companies are hunting for the metal around the globe, including in Cornwall, Nevada, Mali and Australia, where there has been a rapid build-up of production. As a result, some analysts who follow the industry forecast a surplus for the next few years.

“Why would you buy a $5bn stake in a resource that is geologically abundant?” says one investor.

Shares in SQM, whose investors include Iridian Asset Management and New York-based Renaissance Technologies, according to filings, rose more than fourfold in the past two years, but have fallen 12 per cent since the middle of January to $56 a share.

Ben Isaacson, an analyst at Scotiabank in Toronto, says SQM’s share price reflects lithium prices well above the marginal costs of production “which isn’t realistic”. The lithium price will fall to a long-term average of between $8,000 and $10,000 a tonne, he forecasts.

“There’s a clock ticking on this deal,” he says. “This should be bought at a discount — this should not be bought at a premium.”

In December Mr Ponce signed a deal with Chile’s regulator Corfo to give up his control of SQM, which was exercised via a joint voting pact with Japan’s Kowa Group. He still maintains a 30 per cent stake in SQM through holding companies known as the cascadas, or “waterfalls”, for their complicated structure.

That opens the tantalising prospect for any buyer of the possibility of full control of SQM if Mr Ponce is willing to sell his shares.

“For someone investing in that stake they need to do it for a good return on investment or potentially as a stepping stone to take over the whole company,” says Howard Klein, a New York-based partner at RK Equity, which advises companies in the sector.

“Lithium is experiencing a far bigger demand shock,” he adds.

The sale of the SQM stake will reveal just how valuable the world thinks that shock is.

China’s Ganfeng Lithium, the country’s largest producer of the battery raw material, has filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong that could raise at least $1bn.

The share sale comes as carmakers are scrambling for supplies of lithium to meet their ambitious plans for development of electric vehicles. This week German carmaker BMW said it is close to signing five- to 10-year supply agreements for lithium and cobalt, another battery metal.

Ganfeng will use the money for acquisitions, further exploration of lithium resources, and to expand capacity to meet rapidly growing demand from electric vehicles, according to a prospectus filing in Hong Kong. It has hired Citi for the process and could raise at least $1bn to $1.5bn, according to a person familiar with the sale.

Lithium is a key ingredient in all rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used by carmakers from Tesla to China’s BYD. The price of lithium has more than doubled over the past two years.

Shenzhen-listed Ganfeng is the world’s largest lithium producer behind Albemarle and Chile’s SQM. It is one of the most vertically integrated producers with battery production and recycling facilities.

“As part of our expansion plan, we plan to increase our mineral resources through acquisitions of and/or investments in companies with existing exploration rights and additional mining assets,” Ganfeng said.

Ganfeng is also investing in development of solid-state batteries, which use a lithium metal and a solid rather than liquid electrolyte. They promise greater driving range and faster charging. They could also be safer than current lithium-ion batteries.

“As the Chinese government has announced ambitious cost efficiency targets for the battery industry, solid state technology offers strong prospect to meet these goals,” Ganfeng said.

Ganfeng said it will also use some of the proceeds to fund New York-listed Lithium Americas, which is developing a project in Argentina. Ganfeng has a $125m credit line with Lithium Americas.

Lithium-ion remains the most widespread battery technology in use today, thanks to the fact that products that use it are both portable and rechargeable. It powers everything from your smartphone to the “world’s biggest battery” in South Australia.

Demand for batteries is expected to accelerate in coming decades with the increase in deployment of electric vehicles and the need to store energy generated from renewable sources, such as solar photovoltaic panels. But rising concerns about mining practices and shortages in raw materials for lithium-ion batteries – as well as safety issues – have led to a search for alternative technologies.

Many of these technologies aren’t being developed to replace lithium-ion batteries in portable devices, rather they’re looking to take the pressure off by providing alternatives for large-scale, stationary energy storage.

Australian companies and universities are leading the way in developing innovative solutions, but the path to commercial success has its challenges.

Australian alternatives

Flow batteries

In flow batteries the cathode and anode are liquids, rather than solid as in other batteries. The advantage of this is that the stored energy is directly related to the amount of liquid. That means if more energy is needed, bigger tanks can be easily fitted to the system. Also, flow batteries can be completely discharged without damage – a major advantage over other technologies.

ASX-listed battery technology company Redflow has been developing zinc-bromine flow batteries for residential and commercial energy storage. Meanwhile, VSUN Energy is developing a vanadium-based flow battery for large-scale energy storage systems.

Flow batteries have been receiving considerable attention and investment due to their inherent technical and safety advantages. A recent survey of 500 energy professionals saw 46% of respondents predict flow battery technology will soon become the dominant utility-scale battery energy storage method.

Ultrabatteries

Lead-acid batteries were invented in 1859 and have been the backbone of energy storage applications ever since. One major disadvantage of traditional lead-acid batteries is the faster they are discharged, the less energy they can supply. Additionally, the lifetime of lead-acid batteries significantly decreases the lower they are discharged.

Energy storage company Ecoult has been formed around CSIRO-developed Ultrabattery technology – the combination of a lead-acid battery and a carbon ultracapacitor. One key advantage of this technology is that it is highly sustainable – essentially all components in the battery are recyclable. Ultrabatteries also address the issue of rate-dependent energy capacity, taking advantage of the ultracapacitor characteristics to allow high discharge (and charge) rates.

These batteries are showing excellent performance in grid-scaleapplications. Ecoult has also recently received funding to expand to South Asia and beyond.

Repurposed storage solutions

Rechargeable batteries are considered to have reached their “end of life” when they can only be charged to 80% of their initial capacity. This makes sense for portable applications – a Tesla Model S would have a range of 341 km compared to the original 426 km. However, these batteries can still be used where reduced capacity is acceptable.

Startup Relectrify has developed a battery management system that allows end of life electric vehicle batteries to be used in residential energy storage. This provides a solution to mounting concerns about the disposal of lithium-ion batteries, and reports that less than 5% of lithium-ion batteries in Europe are being recycled. Relectrify has recently secured a A$1.5m investment in the company.

Thermal energy storage

Energy can be stored in many forms – including as electrochemical, gravitational, and thermal energy. Thermal energy storage can be a highly efficient process, particularly when the sun is the energy source.

Renewable energy technology company Vast Solar has developed a thermal energy storage solution based on concentrated solar power (CSP). This technology gained attention in Australia with the announcement of the world’s largest CSP facility to be built in Port Augusta. CSP combines both energy generation and storage technologiesto provide a complete and efficient solution.

1414 degrees is developing a technology for large-scale applications that stores energy as heat in molten silicon. This technology has the potential to demonstrate very high energy densities and efficiencies in applications where both heat and electricity are required. For example, in manufacturing facilities and shopping centres.

Research and development

Sodium-ion batteries

At the University of Wollongong I’m part of the team heading the Smart Sodium Storage Solution (S⁴) Project. It’s a A$10.5 million project to develop sodium-ion batteries for renewable energy storage. This ARENA-funded project builds upon previous research undertaken at the University of Wollongong and involves three key battery manufacturing companies in China.

We’ve selected the sodium-ion chemistry for the S⁴ project because it sidesteps many of the raw materials issues associated with lithium-ion batteries. One of the main materials we use to manufacture our batteries is sodium chloride – better known as “table salt” – which is not only abundant, but also cheap.

We’ll be demonstrating the sodium-ion batteries in a residential application at University of Wollongong’s Illawarra Flame House and in an industrial application at Sydney Water’s Bondi Sewage Pumping Station.

Gel-based zinc-bromine batteries

Gelion, a spin-off company from the University of Sydney, is developing gel-based zinc-bromine batteries – similar to the Redflow battery technology. They are designed for use in residential and commercial applications.

The Gelion technology is claimed to have performance comparable with lithium-ion batteries, and the company has attracted significant fundingto develop its product. Gelion is still in the early stages of commercialisation, however plans are in place for large-scale manufacturing by 2019.

Challenges facing alternatives

While this paints a picture of a vibrant landscape of exciting new technologies, the path to commercialisation is challenging.

Not only does the product have to be designed and developed, but so does the manufacturing process, production facility and entire supply chain – which can cause issues bringing a product to market. Lithium-ion batteries have a 25 year headstart in these areas. Combine that with the consumer familiarity with lithium-ion, and it’s difficult for alternative technologies to gain traction.

One way of mitigating these issues is to piggyback on established manufacturing and supply chain processes. That’s what we’re doing with the S⁴ Project: leveraging the manufacturing processes and production techniques developed for lithium-ion batteries to produce sodium-ion batteries. Similarly, Ecoult is drawing upon decades of lead-acid battery manufacturing expertise to produce its Ultrabattery product.

Some challenges, however, are intrinsic to the particular technology.

For example, Relectrify does not have control over the quality or history of the cells it uses for their energy storage – making it difficult to produce a consistent product. Likewise, 1414 degrees have engineering challenges working with very high temperatures.

Forecasts by academics, government officials, investors and tech billionaires all point to an explosion in the future demand for energy storage. While lithium-ion batteries will continue to play a large part, it is likely these innovative Australian technologies will become critical in ensuring energy demands are met.