Lithium-ion batteries: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:05, 17 October 2023

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(...)( they're popular because they can hold more charge than most other rechargeable batteries can ) - found in everything from phones to tablets to electric vehicles. But when it comes to large-scale energy storage(...)( which includes scaling up EVs. The only reason why today's EVs can use li-ion is because they're such a small fraction of vehicles on the road so far. ) - the kind needed for green energy to solve climate change - li-ion batteries can't be produced in the insanely massive amount that would be needed(...)( over 20 times more li-ion batteries than have ever been produced in the history of the world(...)( calculation will be added to this page soon ) ). There will have to be other solutions.

Cobalt

Major problem

Suppose all vehicles ran on lithium-ion batteries:

ev.battery

65.2 kWh

Energy capacity of the average electric vehicle battery

Useable battery capacity of full electric vehicles
https://ev-database.org/cheatsheet/useable-battery-capacity-electric-car

world.cars

1.446 billion

How Many Cars Are There In The World in 2022?
https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2021/06/how-many-cars-are-there-in-the-world/

commercial_factor

2

Without this, we'd be calculating for just personal vehicles. But we also need to factor in commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks. These vary widely in size, and data is hard to find, so for simplicity sake, we just assume that they'd add up to about the same as personal vehicles - thus doubling total energy storage needed. This assumption is based on the fact that freight trucks are a somewhat smaller share of energy demand than passenger vehicles, but the trucks probably need a longer range.

li_ion.cell_voltage

3.6 volts

Voltage of a single lithium-ion cell.

https://www.cei.washington.edu/education/science-of-solar/battery-technology/
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.

li_ion.lithium_by_energy

0.3 grams per amp hour li_ion.cell_voltage

To store a given amount of energy in lithium-ion batteries, this is how much lithium would be needed.

https://batteryguy.com/kb/knowledge-base/how-to-calculate-the-lithium-content-in-a-battery/
The article says lithium per amp hour. We convert this to lithium per watt hour (energy), by including the cell voltage.

lithium.reserves

18425000 tonnes

Lithium metal: Total global mineral reserves

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268790/countries-with-the-largest-lithium-reserves-worldwide/
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

li_ion.cobalt_by_energy

20 kg per 100 kilowatt hours

To store a given amount of energy, in lithium-ion batteries (cobalt type), this is how much cobalt would be needed.

https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/reducing-reliance-cobalt-lithium-ion-batteries

cobalt.reserves

7.1 million tonnes

Cobalt metal: Total global mineral reserves

https://www.statista.com/statistics/264930/global-cobalt-reserves/

% cobalt.reserves (calculation loading) So, besides needing far more cobalt than we could ever mine from the earth(...)( well, technically maybe we'd find more cobalt reserves, but don't count on it ), there would also be major environmental damage and child labor if we tried.

Lithium

Possible problem

Consider a similar calculation for lithium: % lithium.reserves (calculation loading) At least it's viable - although there would still probably be a big environmental footprint.^{[QUANTIFICATION needed]} We'd have to make sure that all EV batteries eventually get recycled.

Note: this still doesn't include the additional energy storage we'd need on the power grid if solar and wind were major energy sources. This is less than what's needed for vehicles, but in total we'd probably slightly exceed global lithium reserves.

Nickel

^{[RESEARCH needed]}

This section has not been filled in yet.

Manganese

^{[RESEARCH needed]}

This section has not been filled in yet.

Energy in manufacturing

Not too bad

Averaged over the lifespan of the vehicle:

li_ion.rq_energy

57 kWh per kWh

Energy required to manufacture a lithium-ion battery

Factory energy only. DOES NOT include the energy involved in mining the materials.

"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

ev.lifespan

8 years

kWh/day (calculation loading)

Compared to how much energy you'd expect to consume by using the vehicle:

average_us_vehicle.mileage_by_time

32 miles/day

Distance driven by the average American vehicle

Top Numbers Driving America's Gasoline Demand
https://www.api.org/news-policy-and-issues/blog/2022/05/26/top-numbers-driving-americas-gasoline-demand

electric_car.efficiency

100 miles per 34.6 kWh

The "gas mileage" equivalent for an average electric car.

Average Electric Car kWh Per Mile [Results From 231 EVs]
ecocostsavings.com/average-electric-car-kwh-per-mile
Data originally from epa.gov/fueleconomy

li_ion.charge_discharge_efficiency

85%

When you charge a lithium-ion battery, this much of the energy can be recovered. The rest is lost as heat.

Range: 80 to 90 %
from wikipedia; haven't found original source yet

kWh/day (calculation loading)

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. (...)( In general, the rarer the mineral, the more energy it takes to mine. ) But we already saw earlier that mining (cobalt) was a problem regardless.

Similar calculations could be done for non-vehicle energy storage.

Recyclability

^{[RESEARCH needed]}

This section has not been filled in yet.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+[[Category:Energy storage]]
+:{{light|<small>''This page is about NMC-type lithium-ion batteries (nickel-manganese-cobalt). For cobalt-free lithium-based batteries, see also: [[LFP batteries]].''</small>}}
+<!--
+<tabs><tab name="short intro">
 Lithium-ion batteries are some of the most commonly used batteries today. But are they a good solution to the [[energy storage]] problem? Short answer: no.
+</tab><tab name="intro">
+-->
+'''Lithium-ion''' (or li-ion for short) is one of the most common types of rechargeable '''batteries''' used today{{x|they're popular because they can hold more charge than most other rechargeable batteries can}} - found in everything from phones to tablets to [[electric vehicles]]. But when it comes to large-scale [[energy storage]]{{x|which ''includes'' scaling up EVs. The only reason why today's EVs ''can'' use li-ion is because they're such a small fraction of vehicles on the road so far.}} - the kind needed for green [[energy]] to solve [[climate change]] - li-ion batteries '''''can't''''' be produced in the insanely massive amount that would be needed{{x|over 20 times more li-ion batteries than have ever been produced in the history of the world{{x|calculation will be added to this page soon}} }}. There will [[the great battery challenge|have to]] be other solutions.
+<!--
+ TODO: Add calculation comparing "world.cars*ev.battery" with some sorta integral of the data i found on global li-ion battery production over the years (gotta find the link again)
+ TALK: Should I uncomment the tab system above that offers short vs regular intro length?
+</tab></tabs>
+-->
+{{considerations}}
-====Concerns====
+==Cobalt==
-{|class="wikitable"
+{{sum|Major problem|bad}}
-|[[#Need for cobalt]]
-|Major problem
-|-
-|[[#Need for lithium]]
-|Minor problem
-|-
-|[[#Energy in manufacturing]]
-|Manageable
-|-
-|Recycling
-|Probably solvable
-|-
-|Performance in winter
-|Manageable
-|}
-==Need for cobalt==
 Suppose all vehicles ran on lithium-ion batteries:
 {{dp
@@ Line 79: / Line 75: @@
 So, besides needing '''far more''' cobalt than we could ever mine from the earth{{x|well, technically maybe we'd find more cobalt reserves, but don't count on it}}, there would also be major environmental damage and [[cobalt#child labor|child labor]] if we tried.
 <!--
-  TODO: add more calculations: labor footprint, energy footprint
+  TODO: make multiple tabs for more calculations: cobalt resources (instead of reserves), and cobalt resources if we strip-mined the ocean floor (not recommended; write that)
-  TALK: should we compare to cobalt ''resources'' rather than ''reserves'', to see if it's viable? If it is - still, how do we quantify the environmental footprint of mining that much cobalt?
+  TALK: is commercial_factor even accurate? is [world.cars] already covering all passenger-owned road vehicles (inc. bigger ones) and [ev.battery] already is an average affected by large vehicles too? (tho maybe not as large as some of the gas cars on the market) And so then the only road vehicles [world.cars] doesn't include are buses and freight trucks? well even so, maybe [commercial_factor=2] is still reasonable bc of the huge disproportionate amount of batteries would be needed for an electric semi truck, since its range has to be much longer than most electric cars? anyway idk what to do with this musing, or how/whether to work it in somewhere in [commercial_factor]'s description?
+-->
+<!-- <small>This problem could maybe be overcome by solving [[lithium-ion/challenge 1]].</small>
+ (i commented this out bc im not sure if it's even a thing)
 -->
-<small>This problem could maybe be overcome by solving [[lithium-ion/challenge 1]].</small>
+==Lithium==
+{{sum|Possible problem}}
-==Need for lithium==
 Consider a similar calculation for lithium:
 {{calc
@@ Line 96: / Line 94: @@
 Note: this still doesn't include the additional [[energy storage]] we'd need on the power grid if [[solar]] and [[wind]] were major [[energy]] sources. This is less than what's needed for vehicles,<!-- TODO: link to the page that has those calculations--> but in total we'd probably slightly exceed global lithium reserves.
-<!-- TODO:
- Add section: ==Need for nickel== -->
+==Nickel==
+{{sum|{{rn}} }}
+{{empty}}
+==Manganese==
+{{sum|{{rn}} }}
+{{empty}}
 ==Energy in manufacturing==
+{{sum|Not ''too'' bad}}
 Averaged over the lifespan of the vehicle:
 {{dp
@@ Line 158: / Line 161: @@
 <small>Similar calculations could be done for non-vehicle energy storage.</small><!-- TODO: add them -->
+==Recyclability==
+{{sum|{{rn}} }}
+{{empty}}
+<!-- INTRO: In the earlier sections regarding minerals, the estimates were assuming that that many minerals would only have to be mined once, and after that, the batteries could be perfectly recycled into new batteries. But is that really the case? -->
+<!-- TALK: maybe add more sections/considerations?:
+* performance in winter
+-->
 ==See also==
-* [[Sodium-ion batteries]] - a possible solution
+* [[Sodium-ion batteries]] - possibly a more scalable [[energy storage]] solution, but it isn't on the market yet.<!-- NOTE: update this if anything changes! -->