The second part of our Battery Special tells you everything about the promising material lithium, its main advantages, sources and the future market demand followed by the third part tomorrow, where the question of resource availability will be settled.

Even though there are many different new developments in battery chemistries, lithium-ion batteries are still considered as the preferred choice, at least for the first generation of electric vehicles in series production. But what is so special about this metal, where do we get it from and are sufficient quantities of this material available? The second and third part of our Batteries Special will collect common opinions to give an overview of this important topic for the future of electric vehicles.

Main properties and advantages

Lithium-ion batteries are increasing in popularity because they have a number of important advantages over competing technologies. First of all, lithium metal is the lightest element that is solid at room temperature and has the greatest energy potential of any solid. In addition, the metal has a low coefficient of thermal expansion, the highest electrochemical potential of metals, is highly reactive and has an excellent thermal conductivity.

For lithium-ion batteries this means that they are much lighter than other types of rechargeable batteries of the same size. The electrodes of a lithium-ion battery are made of lightweight lithium and carbon. The high reactivity of the element implies that a lot of energy can be stored in its atomic bonds. This translates into a very high energy density for lithium-ion batteries.

Sources

Current and potential sources of lithium are continental brines, pegmatites, oilfield and geothermal brines, and jadarite. Global lithium reserves and resources estimations vary between 28 and 36 million tons but the main source are continental brines with around 60 per cent and pegmatites with around 25 per cent.
In continental brines lithium is leached from certain volcanic rocks and when the surface or groundwater flows into closed basins where solar evaporation rates exceeds rainfall, lithium and other elements become more concentrated. Major brain deposits are Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Western China and Tibet. Pegmatites are coarse-grained igneous rocks formed by the crystallization of post magmatic fluids. They occur in close proximity to large magmatic intrusions and vary greatly in size. Main lithium containing pegmatites are numerous in the U.S., North Carolina and in China. Due to the high costs they have not been fully explored yet, however, with the increase in demand the exploration activity has already increased as well.

Current and future demand

Currently lithium mineral concentrates are used predominantly in glass and ceramics, where they act as a powerful flux and provide thermal shock resistance. Lithium carbonate, the main lithium product, is used for the production of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The current demand is mainly for small versions used in computers or mobiles, however, a major demand growth is expected with the large scale electrification of vehicles. At present, 39 per cent of li-ion batteries are produced in Japan, 39 per cent in China and 20 per cent in South Korea.

Production Costs

Due to its unique lithium concentration, exceptional solar evaporation conditions as well as the proximity to the coast, the Salar de Atacama in Chile is considered to have the lowest production costs for lithium. Important factors that influence the costs are in general the lithium grade, the complexity of chemistries, the climate conditions and the location. The costs for lithium recovery from jadarite, hectorite and geothermical brines are not enough investigated yet. Production costs from pegmatites can vary but are considered to be between 25 and 50 per cent higher in the U.S. than in China.

However, production costs will not play the most important role since the cost of lithium in a lithium-ion battery are estimated to be only around 1 per cent of the total battery cost, according to the chemicals group Chemetall.