Electric Vehicles, the Paris Climate Treaty and the Lithium-Ion Battery Demand

Electric Vehicles have become an attractive option for consumers looking to shrink their carbon footprint, cut costs in gasoline, and help progress their country and the world into a new era of sustainable energy. This new demand has compelled traditional automobile manufacturers to enter the electric car industry and compete with the current authorities in EV production and sales, such as Tesla, and subsequently increase the options and buyer autonomy for eager EV consumers and the ballooning buyer’s market.

Electric Vehicles have slowly been building in popularity since the turn of the 21^st century, increasing in sales each year of the 2010s, culminating in recent explosions in sales where EV registration increased by 70% between the years of 2014 and 2015, and also in 2021 where EV sales doubled from 3 million to 6.6 million, perhaps in part due to the easing of social distancing restraints associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. This remarkable and continued growth of the EV market has given zealous governments worldwide reason and confidence to set ambitious goals to transition entirely from fossil-fuel powered internal-combustion engine vehicles to totally electric-powered vehicles. On August 5^th, 2021, the White House announced it would seek to ensure that 50 percent of all new passenger vehicles sold in the United States are electric-battery powered by 2030, in order to compete globally in the EV market and meet international climate commitments, such as the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius.

However, EV production is not currently fast and stable enough to supply current market demand, nor that which is needed to progress the United States to the agreed upon cuts to carbon emissions laid out in the Paris Agreement. The EV industry has been struggling to keep up with the continued increased demand due to production obstacles and hiccups, mainly regarding resource procurement and supply chain issues. Resource scarcity primarily in the area of lithium procurement, the most crucial component of electric vehicle batteries, has affected production objectives for companies; begun a goldrush to find, build and control lithium sources in the US as well as worldwide, and also has concerned experts about the long-term sustainability of EV production.

Analysis

If renewable energy goals sufficient to stop climate change are to be reached, then the demand for lithium is expected to grow 43-fold, according to the IEA. Mining efforts in the United States are met with a plethora of challenges, including local and cultural opposition tied to certain regions in the United States where lithium stores are known to exist. One of these is Thacker Pass, a mountain range in Nevada that will be able to produce 60,000 tons of lithium per year, which if in comparison to the number one producer of lithium in the world, Australia, and their output of 400,000 tons of lithium per year, this location becomes extremely significant as a single location amounting to 15% of the total of Australia’s lithium procurement. However, this range is near a native American settlement and the local people have challenged the creation of this mine, citing cultural importance related to the graves of their ancestors. This teaches us that resource management projects will require collaboration with communities who see these landmarks as apart of their heritage, and will ultimately need sensitivity, negotiation and persuasion tactics to engage this project without upsetting and causing harm to local populations. Further problems internationally have also inspired the US Government to declare the obtaining and accruement of Lithium a national security issue, as China has invested nearly 60 billion dollars into developing a strong lithium supply chain even though it only owns 7.9% of lithium deposits worldwide. On March 31^st President Joe Biden invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act which aims to ensure lithium is supplied domestically; citing that dependence on foreign sources of the resource is a national security concern. If China, America’s powerful economic and socio-political rival, were to sanction or place an embargo on the US, it would disrupt and critically harm our entire functionality as a nation and an economy. More than half of cobalt, another essential resource for building lithium-ion batteries is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and refined in China, and about 80% of lithium worldwide is controlled by Australia and Chile. This presents a challenge for the United States diplomatically.

Policy Recommendation/Alternatives

Policy alternatives the United States should consider is the incentivization of consumers to recycle or repurpose their old electronic devices. This would be a considerable improvement to not only the production of usable lithium-ion batteries for EV production, but also for the immediate protection of the environment. Lithium-ion batteries can be extremely dangerous for the different material components they contain, and if not disposed of properly they can result in a number of environmental hazards such as toxic acid leaks, and metal dust, organic, and fluorine contaminations. Filling landfills with old lithium-ion batteries can also be dangerous and can result in materials such as carbon dust, strong alkali, and heavy metal ions causing severe environmental pollutions, hazards, etc, such as raising the PH level of the soil and producing toxic gasses. Human health can be directly affected through these materials entering the body by invading underground water passageways, contaminating our water supply.

Analyzing and comparing the economic rewards of recycling and repurposing yields promising but imperfect findings. The first option, “repurposing” spent lithium batteries suggests that when a battery pack reaches below 80% of its original nominal capacity for power, the power cell is analyzed to reconfigure a new pack to be used in an electronic application with the same, or smaller, power requirements. However, there are significant challenges with this approach. The differences in designs between batteries can make setting technical standards for the evaluation, testing, and safety inspections of the spent lithium batteries difficult. There is also the matter of consumer psychology towards the reusing of spent batteries in their products, as well as responsibility for batteries that are used beyond what they were originally intended for. Possible future technological breakthroughs may help this this idea come into adoption and government investment inro R&D will only help the development of these technologies. Accurate detection technology for the state of health for reused batteries as well as improvements in regrouping spent lithium-ion batteries with the possible help of artificial intelligence will allow the repurposing of spent batteries to be of economical benefit with a higher assurance of safety and effectiveness.

On the other hand, recycling lithium-ion batteries is also an effective way to preserve valuable materials and the precious metals (Li, Co, Ni) that compose the batteries. Only abut two dozen companies in North America and Europe are recycling batteries which is an increase from just a single facility just a few years ago. The recycling process consists of pre-discharging, disassembling, sorting, shredding, purifying, and re-manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. Potentials issues arise however, during the most common form of lithium-ion battery recycling, known as the pyrometallurgy method. This method requires the battery to be incinerated using an energy-intensive high heat process that can release toxic fumes and limit the collection of other valuable components of the battery. It is also more expensive than other forms of recycling due to its electricity consumption needed for the incineration process and the exhaust gas treatment process. This is the most common method of lithium battery recycling, with it being widely adopted commercially in Europe, The United States, and Japan. China uses the hydrometallurgical process, which involves breaking down the battery with acid and alkali, allowing the lithium as well as other elements, more than pyrometallurgy process in fact, to be collected. Unfortunately, this process requires more than two times as much material inputs (the acids) as the pyrometallurgical process, and still incurs steep expenses related to the wastewater treatment.

Project Outcomes

Outcomes stated in this section are related to the implementation of policies designed to fund the R&D of lithium and rare metal direct recycling, economic incentives by way of tax-breaks or reimbursement toward general civilians recycling their electronic devices and lithium batteries, and creating a more structured and transparent process for government collection of old and unused electronics. R&D development and investment in recycling methods for lithium batteries refers almost exclusively to the development of direct LIB recycling. This form of recycling has potential for positive commercial impacts and a more encompassing and comprehensive recycling method to procure precious components of lithium-ion batteries which will almost certainly benefit the United States and the Biden administration’s goal of creating a more stable and dependable source of lithium for the production of EVs.

Conclusion

As electric cars become more and more popular, the demand for materials that can be used to build lithium-ion batteries becomes steeper and steeper. As trends grow toward electric vehicles becoming pushed by policy agendas initiating within governments worldwide in attempts to lower carbon footprints, demand for EVs is mirrored by demand for strong raw material sources, strong supply chains, strong diplomatic relations between countries with access to the necessary raw materials, and strong bonds between intranational communities. In addition to this recycling becomes paramount for the United States to retain the ability to remain competitive on a global scale within the EV market. New forms of recycling that are on the horizon with investments in R&D and advanced technologies, allow us to more efficiently strip old batteries for reusable raw materials and continue to make market-grade lithium-ion batteries.

Works Cited

·       IEA (2021), Global EV Outlook 2021, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2021, License: CC BY 4.0

·       Yu, Xiaolu, et al. “Current Challenges in Efficient Lithium‐Ion Batteries’ Recycling: A Perspective.” Global Challenges, vol. 6, no. 12, Dec. 2022, pp. 1–10. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.mutex.gmu.edu/10.1002/gch2.202200099.

·       “FOTW #1225, February 14, 2022: From 2016-2019, over 90% of U.S. Lithium Imports Came from Argentina and Chile.” Energy.gov, https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1225-february-14-2022-2016-2019-over-90-us-lithium-imports-came.

·       Jones B, Elliott RJR, Nguyen-Tien V. The EV revolution: The road ahead for critical raw materials demand. Appl Energy. 2020 Dec 15;280:115072. doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115072. Epub 2020 Oct 9. PMID: 33052165; PMCID: PMC7545311