Lithium-ion batteries
- This page is about NMC-type lithium-ion batteries (nickel-manganese-cobalt). For cobalt-free lithium-based batteries, see also: LFP batteries.
Lithium-ion (or li-ion for short) is one of the most common types of rechargeable batteries used today
Cobalt and other minerals
If all the world's vehicles were lithium-ion electric, how many minerals would be needed:
https://ev-database.org/cheatsheet/useable-battery-capacity-electric-car
https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2021/06/how-many-cars-are-there-in-the-world/
https://www.fluxpower.com/blog/what-is-the-energy-density-of-a-lithium-ion-battery
It's 3.6 volts for the "cobalt type" of lithium-ion battery. Other types might have a very slightly different voltage.
The article says lithium per amp hour. We convert this to lithium per watt hour (energy), by including the cell voltage.
Added up all the countries: 9,200,000 + 4,700,000 + 1,900,000 + 1,500,000 + 750,000 + 220,000 + 95,000 + 60,000 = 18,425,000 metric tons
According to a meta-analysis: "In 2020, an average lithium-ion battery contained around 28.9 kilograms of nickel, 7.7 kilogram of cobalt, and 5.9 kilogram of lithium. [...] Based on the average battery composition in 2020 with 60 kWh capacity." [1] Also note that 60 kWh is considered pretty "average" for the battery capacity of an electric car. [2]
So, knowing this, we can do a quick estimate:
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Cobalt is the biggest issue, as we'd need to somehow mine 3 times more cobalt than Earth's mineral reserves. Such a scenario would motivate companies to strip-mine the ocean floor in desperate attempt to obtain enough cobalt - which would be disastrous for wildlife. Also note that cobalt is notorious for being mined by child labor. [new page needed]
Lithium and nickel are also cutting it close, nearly exhausting their global mineral reserves as well. TODO: How would that compare to the envionmental impact of oil mining (status quo)? [RESEARCH needed]
Best case, these minerals would only be mined once, assuming the EV batteries get recycled properly at their end of life. If not, the situation would get even worse with time, with even more mining needed than what was calculated above.
Note that the exact proportion of cobalt & nickel can vary by battery design, but there are always tradeoffs in the engineering. Cobalt is needed for stability (i.e. to prevent batteries from catching fire when minorly damaged).
As great as lithium-ion is for small electronic devices, it's simply not scalable enough for large-scale energy storage, because of the minerals. If we want all vehicles to be electric, we'll need some other battery type such as sodium-ion.
Energy in manufacturing
Averaged over the lifespan of the vehicle:
"Based on public data on two different Li-ion battery manufacturing facilities, and adjusted results from a previous study, the most reasonable assumptions for the energy usage for manufacturing Li-ion battery cells appears to be 50–65 kWh of electricity per kWh of battery capacity."
Source:
Energy use for GWh-scale lithium-ion battery production
Institute of Physics - IOP Publishing
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/ab5e1e
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Compared to how much energy you'd expect to consume by using the vehicle:
https://www.api.org/news-policy-and-issues/blog/2022/05/26/top-numbers-driving-americas-gasoline-demand
ecocostsavings.com/average-electric-car-kwh-per-mile
Data originally from epa.gov/fueleconomy
from wikipedia; haven't found original source yet
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From this perspective, it seems that the energy in manufacturing the battery is reasonable enough.
Note: This doesn't include the energy involved in mining for the minerals to make the battery.
Similar calculations could be done for non-vehicle energy storage.
Recyclability
This section has not been filled in yet.
See also
- Sodium-ion batteries - possibly a more scalable energy storage solution, but it isn't on the market yet.