What Are The Long-Term Prospects For Lithium Batteries?

The use of lithium zirconate and other forms of lithium is widespread. While it can have medicinal uses, however, there is no doubt that its importance in the development of lithium-ion batteries has been its most prominent area of advancement in importance in recent years.

Lithium batteries are now ubiquitous, in laptops, mobile phones and, increasingly, electric vehicles. This has, in turn, made access to lithium one of the most important mineral priorities in the world. It is little wonder that the as-yet unsigned minerals deal between Ukraine and the US includes access to the eastern European country’s lithium.

The UK Starts Lithium Mining

This is highly significant in the UK, where until now none of the lithium used to make batteries or in any other process has been sourced domestically. This, however, is about to change as Cornish Lithium gears up to begin production.

As the company prepares to extract lithium at its Trelavour site, both from hard rock and extraction from thermal brines, it has announced the appointment of new CEO Jamie Airnes, with his predecessor as CEO, Jeremy Wrathall, becoming executive chairman.

Looking to the future, Mr Wrathall said: “I believe that the UK can extract and deliver 50,000 tonnes of domestic lithium for UK industry, and Cornish Lithium will continue to be the industry leader in helping achieve this goal.”

However, could it be that at the very moment when the UK is starting up its own domestic lithium mining and extraction industry, lithium ceases to be the battery mineral of choice?

News To Take With A Pinch Of Salt

Such a prospect may seem laughable, but, as ABP Live reports, one of the world’s largest lithium companies has decided to take a punt on salt.

The report takes a somewhat sceptical tone on this initiative by Contemporary Amperex Technology, which, it notes, controls around 40 per cent of the global lithium market. Nonetheless, in a recent interview, co-founder Robin Zheng said around half the market could be set to switch to sodium-ion batteries, which are starting to look competitive.

While sodium and lithium display similar electrochemical behaviour, the fact is that the former is heavier and not as energy-dense, which puts it at a clear disadvantage. However, the article notes there are some advantages for sodium.

Salty Advantages?

Firstly, it is more plentiful, as it can be found in huge quantities in the sea and extracted in more environmentally-friendly ways than lithium, which, of course, is the whole point of using lithium batteries to power electric cars.

Secondly, the material is more temperature resilient, being more effective at low temperatures – a clear advantage for those driving electric vehicles in cold climates. Thirdly, it is resistant to the kind of thermal runaway that has given lithium batteries a bad rap for being prone to extreme flammability.

All of this does give sodium batteries an advantage for large-scale stationary storage, where bulk is not an issue. EVs are another matter, although improvements in technology may help to extract more power and close this gap.

Where the problem does lie, the article notes, is that the batteries will become cheap once they are mass-produced, but they cannot be produced cheaply until there is mass production. The fact that a couple of major Chinese firms are pushing ahead with sodium gigafactories, however, indicates that some are looking beyond this catch-22 situation.

Supply Issues From Jadar To Arkansas

This is not the only area of uncertainty concerning the lithium industry. The global price of the material has fallen in the last couple of years due to a glut of supply. That may be a good problem to have in the longer run as the motor industry shifts from fossil fuels to electric, but for now, it does create an economic and commercial problem.

Ecological concerns are also an issue. In some places, such as the Jadar Valley in Serbia, the abundant deposit offers a major opportunity for European customers and a major economic opportunity, but concerns over water pollution in the valley and claims among Serbs of political corruption have made this highly controversial.

However, the Jadar Valley discovery has been far from the only recent one in Europe, let alone the rest of the world; a vast deposit was discovered in Arkansas last autumn, giving the US a huge deposit to capitalise on.

Besides that, the UK is now set to be in a far better position, with the Cornish output supplemented by the upcoming commencement of production by Weardale Lithium in County Durham, another brine extraction operation that has gained planning permission.

As an island surrounded by salty seawater, the UK would not exactly be in difficulty if sodium batteries were to usurp lithium. But as it stands, lithium still leads the way, making the emergence of domestic production all the more important.