Raw Materials for Li-ion and Redox Flow Batteries

Dr. Pertti Kauranen

Nordbatt 2017, 1-3 November 2017, Kokkola

Outline1. Market forecasts for electric vehicles and Li-ion batteries

2. Market forecasts for lithium and cobalt supply and demand

3. Can Li and Co supply sustain fast EV adaption ?

4. Sustainability of Li and Co supply chains

5. How much can battery recycling contribute ?

6. Effect of technology choices

7. Recycling processes

8. Vanadium redox flow batteries

9. Other redox battery chemistries

10. Summary

1a. EV market forecasts

35 million EVs/a

10 million EVs/a

1b. Li-ion battery market forecasts

40 gigafactories

2a. Lithium supply and demand

Global Lithium LLC 2017 (top right) and 2015 (bottom right).

2b. Cobalt supply and demand

Petersen 2017 (top right) and MIT 2017 (bottom right).

3. Can Li and Co supply sustain EV growth ?

Co LCE

Productionin 2015

108.000 Ton

235.000 Ton

Reserves 7,1millionTon

74,2 millionTon

Resources 120 millionTon

180 millionTon

Co 24 years

Li 58 years

10 kg Co and 42 kg LCE (8 kg Li)assumed per average EV

4a. Sustainability of Li value chain

Li 58 years

Washington Post 2016:

• Brine pumping is risking local water

resources in arid regions.

• Local communities are not sufficiently

compensated by the mining companies.

4b. Sustainability of Co value chain

Li 58 years

Amnesty 2015:

• 20 % of the DRC cobalt comes from artisanal

miners including child labor.

• OEMs are unable to identify their cobalt source.

5. How much can battery recycling contribute ?

Li 58 years• By 2025 mainly batteries from consumers

electronics will be available for recycling.

• This could be an important source for Co if

effective global collection and recycling

infrastructure could be established.

• Recycling rates: Co 68 %, Li <1 %

(UNEP 2011)Electrek 2016

6. Effect of technology choices

Li 58 years

• Cobalt can and should be replaced by LFP in stationary

applications.

• Should alloy cathodes be used in consumer electronics ?

• Are LMO and LNO real alternatives to NMC and NCA, and

how soon ?

• Increasing demand for Nickel.

Electrek 2016

Johnson Matthey 2017

7a. Pyrothermal recycling (Umicore)

Li 58 years

• Ultra High Temperature (UHT) process for mixed

battery waste.

• 7000 tons per annum capacity.

• Batteries are directly fed into furnace as-is.

• Pre-heating is performed in the same furnace, an

innovation.

• Nickel, cobalt and copper matte is produced and

then hydrometallurgically treated.

• Slag fraction with lithium which is not recovered.

• Lithium could be recovered, however it is

economically unattractive.

Elwert et al. 2016 and Umicore 2017.

7b. Hydrothermal recycling (Aalto)

Li 58 years

• Industrially processed battery waste has been investigated.

• Investigations done in mineral and organic acids with

different reductants.

• Simple precipitation route investigated via neutralization

and carbonate precipitation.

• Lithium is an evasive element and difficult to recover from

solution once dissolved.

• Complex waste stream adds to difficulty: robust and flexible

processes are needed.

• The hydrothermal process should be preferably integrated

into existing metal (Co,Li,Ni) refining processes.Cobalt rich, lithium containing chloride solution from battery waste leaching.

CloseLoop 2017; Aaltonen et al. 2017

8. Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB)

• Rongke Power (China) is planning to build a 3 GW/12 GWh/a VRFB gigafactory (UET 2016).

• About 54.000 Tn/a Vanadium would be needed to supply the electrolyte, the amount

produced in China today (AGM 2015).

• The recycling rate of Vanadium is < 1 % (UNEP 2011).

• VRBF electrolytes should be straightforward to recondition and recycle.

• Vanadium was added to the EU new CRM list in 2017 (EU 2017).

Global reserve 63

million Ton

9. Other RFB chemistriesChemistry R&D Pilot Commercial

Zn-Br2

Zn-Fe, Fe-Fe

Zn-air, H2-Br2, Cu-Cu, organic

Element Unit V Zn Cu Fe Br

Production Million Ton/a 0,095 13,4 19,4 3.000 390

Reserves Million Ton 63 200 720 80.000 Plenty

Recycling % < 1 35-60 43-53 52-90

Mainproducers

China, SA,Russia

China,Korea, India

Chile,Peru, China

China,Australia,Brazil

Israel,USA,JordanUSGS 2013-2017

10. Summary

• Cobalt appears to be the most critical Li-ion battery raw material and resource

scarcity can limit EV market growth.

• Co free chemistries should be used in non-critical, e.g. stationary, applications.

• Consumer electronics will remain as the most Co intensive application until 2025.

• Lithium production appears to be capable of responding to the market demands.

• More efficient battery recycling is needed: first for consumer electronics, later for EV

batteries

• Resource scarcity could affect the scale-up of vanadium batteries, too.

• RFB chemistries based on abundant raw materials like Fe, Zn or Cu would be

preferred for stationary energy storage.

Acknowledgements

• This work has been supported by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of

Finland, project CloseLoop (grant number 303452) (www.closeloop.fi).

• Prof. Mari Lundström and. Mr. Antti Porvali, Aalto University, Department of Chemical

and Metallurgical Engineering, are acknowledged for providing the data over the

recycling processes.

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