Lithium News

Daimler is hedging its bets by keeping hydrogen fuel cell technology in development, even as the German giant and most of the rest of the industry have shifted focus to electric vehicles powered by lithium ion batteries.

Daimler introduced the preproduction Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell crossover last year at the Frankfurt auto show. It combines hydrogen fuel cell and battery technologies in the form of a plug-in hybrid getting most of its range from the fuel cell side.

But why pour money into fuel cells when the automaker has said it expects battery electrics to account for up to 25 percent of global sales by 2025?

“We will scale, in terms of going into tens and hundreds of thousands of production, the battery-electric vehicles first,” Ola Kaellenius, Daimler board member in charge of r&d, said at the Detroit auto show. “But we will keep the fuel cell in development, so we have this technological option should there be a shift in the market in this direction.”

The prospect for the F-Cell in the U.S. is murky. In September, Mercedes said it planned to sell it here beginning in 2019. But a company spokesman last week said there is no timeline for the U.S.

Kaellenius termed fuel cells an “interesting technology for the future,” especially for larger vehicles because they have better energy density than battery-electric vehicles.

“It’s conceivable that the next generation of fuel cells could go into a bus instead,” Kaellenius said. “In the winter, heating the bus requires a lot of energy, and a combination between an electric drive and a fuel cell could be a better option.”

A Massachusetts-based startup says it’s doing something that no other company has been able: sell lithium-metal batteries commercially.

And they’re appearing first in drones.

SolidEnergy Systems, a spin-out from MIT, has developed a battery that it says has double the energy density of current lithium-ion batteries. That means that a battery from SolidEnergy Systems could be half the size of a standard lithium-ion battery and hold the same amount of energy, or it could be the same size as a lithium-ion battery and hold twice as much energy.

For drone makers, that means a drone that could fly further and longer on a single charge. For example, a drone surveying acres of crop land could fly for an hour instead of just 20 minutes with a standard battery.

The company’s battery can “double the radius” that a drone can fly, and “quadruple the area covered,” said SolidEnergy Systems CEO and founder Qichao Hu, who developed the technology at MIT in the lab of battery researcher Don Sadoway.

Hu said the company is now selling batteries in low volumes to drone makers and companies that are looking to bring wireless internet to rural places.

SolidEnergy Systems just closed on a funding round of $34 million. While the startup didn’t disclose its investors in the Series C round, existing investors include Temasek, Applied Ventures, General Motors and Vertex Ventures China.

The company, founded in 2012, has raised $50 million to date. That’s not a lot of capital to get a battery from the lab into a factory. The new funding will be spent on improving the battery tech and expanding manufacturing.

SolidEnergy System’s energy storage innovation is packed into a thin lithium-metal foil for the negative electrode, replacing the commonly-used graphite in lithium-ion batteries.

The company’s batteries also use a semi-solid material for the electrolyte, replacing the flammable liquid usually found in lithium-ion batteries. The two-part breakthrough creates a battery with an energy density of 450 wat- hours per kilogram and 1200 watt-hours per liter.

A recent report in the publication Nature, written by government scientists, suggested that the combination of the lithium-metal battery and a solid electrolyte could lead to a successor to the lithium-ion battery. The paper predicted that such batteries are at least a decade away.

However, SolidEnergy Systems is already selling batteries in low volumes today. Hu said the Nature paper is focused on the “perfect” battery, while batteries that are “good enough” are already arriving.

SolidEnergy System’s battery is more expensive than a lithium-ion battery. That’s largely because the new batteries are made in small volumes, said Hu. But Drone makers are paying a premium to boost their flying times.

Down the road, Hu said the company’s lithium-metal battery will be the same cost as a lithium-ion battery. The Nature paper found that with the right low-cost parts, lithium-metal battery cells could reach a cost of $100 per kilowatt-hour.

While SolidEnergy Systems has reached a sales milestone, it’s still selling the drone batteries in low volumes manufactured in its showcase factory in Woburn, Massachusetts. At some point, the company plans to scale up manufacturing in Asia — either China or Korea — said Hu.

The company is trying to keep manufacturing costs low by making lithium-metal batteries on standard equipment used by the lithium-ion battery industry. The very first factory (before the one in Woburn) used old manufacturing equipment from A123 Systems after its bankruptcy.

Drones are just the first market for SolidEnergy Systems. The company is aiming to build battery packs for wearables, like smart watches, and eventually electric vehicles. “The end goal is to disrupt transportation,” said Hu.

Commercializing a new type of battery is exceedingly difficult. Previously, SolidEnergy Systems predicted its drone and wearable batteries would be available last year, and its electric car battery would be ready in 2018. Hu now estimates the company’s wearable battery will be ready in 2019, and its electric car battery sometime in 2020 or 2021.

Tesla is in talks with Chile’s largest lithium producer SQM about investing in supplies of the key battery material, as it ramps up production of its first mass-market electric car.

The Elon Musk-led carmaker could agree to build a processing plant in Chile to produce the high-quality lithium it needs for its batteries, Eduardo Bitran, the executive vice-president of Chilean development agency Corfo, told the Financial Times.

If successful, the deal would mark Tesla’s first foray into securing battery raw materials, which have soared in price due to the growing popularity of electric cars.

“With an increasing supply of lithium, Chile is key for any company that wants to become global in electro-mobility,” Mr Bitran said. “Being close to Chile or having a strategic alliance in Chile becomes a strategic factor for a company like Tesla.”

Global carmakers are starting to lock in supplies of raw materials as they scale up production of electric cars to meet ambitious targets. This month, Toyota’s trading arm agreed to buy a 15 per cent stake in Orocobre, which produces lithium in Argentina.

Santiago-based Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) is one of the world’s lowest-cost producers of lithium. This month, the company resolved a long-running dispute with Corfo, which will allow the miner to quadruple lithium production by 2026.

While the talks are at an early stage, Tesla could invest in processing technology to produce the lithium hydroxide used by its car batteries directly from the brine beneath Chile’s desert, Mr Bitran said.

It could also bring a partner to make battery cathodes in the country, because Chile has some of the world’s cheapest solar power, he added.

Tesla is struggling to meet production targets for its Model 3 mass-market electric car at its giant Gigafactory in Nevada. The carmaker began making its own battery cells with Panasonic at the factory in early 2017.

SQM and Tesla declined to comment.

Shares in SQM have jumped more than 71 per cent over the past year to trade at $55.9 as lithium prices have more than doubled on the back of rising demand.

A $5bn stake in the company is being sold by Canadian fertiliser giant Nutrien, as part of the condition of the merger last year between PotashCorp and Agrium that created the company.

Mr Bitran said it would be a “conflict of interest” if another leading lithium producer bought the 32 per cent stake.

Instead, Mr Bitran said some of the shares should be sold on the open market in Chile, for investment by pension funds and other investors.

“We don’t want another important lithium producer of the world to buy the whole 32 per cent of the company,” he said. “We don’t want that. It will create conflict of interest that will upset the interests of SQM, the interests of Corfo, the interests of Chile and that’s a problem.”

Tianqi Lithium, China’s largest lithium company, has been touted as a contender to buy the stake. Rio Tinto, the miner, is also understood to still be interested in the sale, said a person familiar with the company’s thinking.

The University of South Wales’ Centre for Automotive & Power System Engineering and Ricardo plan to collaborate on electric vehicle battery systems research and development. The collaboration will provide Ricardo with access to the facilities and the support of the major investment in battery systems development by CAPSE, while also enabling the University to benefit from Ricardo’s knowledge and experience of the challenges of both research and production-intent programmes.

Ricardo is an international provider in the development of electric vehicle battery systems, and works with some of the world’s leading automakers, from mainstream OEMs to EV specialists. The company has extensive experience in the research and application of new and novel battery cell chemistries, as well as in the product development, engineering, and vehicle integration of production-ready battery packs and battery management systems.

“I am pleased to be able to sign this MoU with the University of South Wales Centre for Automotive & Power System Engineering,” said Ricardo Automotive MD Rory Fisher. “Ricardo is already a global leader in both vehicle electrification and in the development and application of EV battery systems and technology. CAPSE is an important element of the UK’s electrified vehicle development capacity. We look forward to collaborating with CAPSE for the mutual benefit of the University and of Ricardo and its electric vehicle customers.”

ZIMBABWE is expected to be one of the major global players in the production of processed lithium, a main component in the manufacturing of electric car batteries with Australian (ASX) listed Zimbabwean mining concern, Prospect Resources having set sights at extracting and processing the mineral this year.

Prospect Resources executive director Mr Harry Greaves said the company was at an advance stage of developing an integrated lithium chemical plant at Arcadia, northern Zimbabwe.

“Stage one is to produce Petalite and Spodumene concentrates through a standard crushing, DMS (Dense Media Separation) and flotation circuit. This is now fully funded as per the conditional agreement. Ground breaking for stage one is expected in the first quarter of 2018 with a 14-month lead time for mine development and plant construction before production commences,” Mr Greaves.

Stage two of the project entails the production of battery grade lithium carbonate.

“This is a significantly bigger investment and a technological leap. Nothing of this scale has yet been done in Africa. Prospect Resources have already produced 99,8 percent lithium carbonate under laboratory conditions, a phenomenal achievement – possibly the first time battery grade lithium carbonate has been produced in Africa. On the back of this success we are busy constructing a pilot scale lithium Carbonate Pilot plant which will allow us to demonstrate the practicality of producing Lithium carbonate from Petalite rich ores,” said Mr Greaves.

To date Prospect Resources have proven that Arcadia has Africa’s largest JORC compliant hard rock lithium deposit and sixth largest in the world.

Prospect Resources was borne out of the vision of its chairman Mr Hugh Warner and Mr Greaves as part of their efforts to marry Zimbabwean skills and projects with the International capital markets through the Australian Stock Exchange.

“Zimbabwe has prospective ground for many minerals and we have a wealth of mining skills both locally and very excitingly in the Diaspora. With the changing political environment it is quite possible that many of these skilled personnel will want to come home with their skills,” said Mr Greaves.

In May 2016 Prospect Resources entered into an agreement with Mr Paul Chimbodza who owned certain prospective lithium claims in the Arcturus area. These claims are now held under, Examix Investments P/L (t/a Zimbabwe Lithium Mining) a Zimbabwe Investment Centre approved mining company that holds both National Project Status and is part of the Government 100 days Rapid Results Initiative.

“In addition Prospect is fully compliant with the Mines and Minerals Act, the Environmental Impact Assessments permits are in place and valid, the community are on board, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe are on board. The project has also applied for a SEZ (Special Economic Zone) status which is currently under processing by the Special Economic Zones Authority,” said Mr Greaves.

A number of producers of processed lithium — an essential element for batteries used in electric cars — are agreeing long-term contracts with their customers to fund the investments needed to address a looming shortfall.

Demand for battery-grade lithium compounds is expected to skyrocket in the next decades in tandem with soaring demand for electric cars as governments and individual consumers try to reduce their carbon footprint.

Although there’s plenty of lithium around, the problem is ensuring there is enough capacity to process it.

Battery makers and other end-users such as car manufacturers will need to sign multi-year deals that encourage large producers to invest more, and faster, industry sources say.

“We have negotiated and signed a conditional placement and seven-year off-take agreement with Chinese EPC contractor Sinomines which is subject to final Chinese State sign off and completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study will see the Sinomes fund the entire mine development. While today, Prospect Resources looks like an overnight success, it has actually been a product of more than four years . . . with a boom in electric vehicles and a new Government in Zimbabwe, it would seem that the time is right for the wider investment community to invest in Prospect and Zimbabwe. Prospect is probably the only ASX listed company which has all its assets based in Zimbabwe,” said Mr Greaves.

He said Prospect Resources is engaged with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and various arms of Government all of whom are working closely through the Rapid Results Initiative to fast track the various stages of this project.

“It is important to recognise and applaud the efforts and results being delivered by these various arms of the state. It is critical to recognise that there exists a narrow window of opportunity to develop an entirely new business in Zimbabwe. Prospect Resources understands this as do the various arms of Government, hence the urgency to align all players.

“As Prospect Resources we are extremely excited about the project, the employment we will generate, the development we are bringing to the country and the prospect of further investments into battery related minerals. Zimbabwe can be the centre of Southern Africa’s battery revolution,” said Mr Greaves.

Scientists in South Korea have developed stretchable aqueous lithium-ion battery batteries that may power the next generation of wearable devices.

Using hybrid carbon/polymer (HCP) composite as a stretchable current collector, the research team developed a highly stretchable rechargeable battery based on aqueous electrolytes, according to the study published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

“Our findings are expected to expand the number of stretchable nanocomposites with electrochemical and mechanical properties available for use in a wide variety of applications,” said Kwanyong Seo, Professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).

Stretchable electronic devices have recently attracted tremendous attention as next-generation devices due to their immense flexibility.

The increasing interest and demand of flexible electronics has fueled the search for highly stretchable electrodes with high mechanical durability and high electrical conductivity during deformation.

Although many methods have been proposed for these electrodes, none of them has managed to simultaneously achieve high stretchability for the electrodes and have a scalable manufacturing process.

The research led by Professor Soojin Park of UNIST solved such issues using a conductive polymer composite, composed of Jabuticaba-like hybrid carbon fillers containing carbon nanotubes and carbon black in a simple solution process.

The shape of this structure resembled that of a Jabuticaba tree, the Brazilian grapetree, the researchers said.

The research team observed that the HCP composite is found to effectively retain its electrical conductivity, even under high strain rates.

This makes it suitable for use in highly stretchable aqueous lithium-ion batteries, the study said.