Can lithium revolutionise the way we harness energy?
Lithium is a mineral with great value - an ancient element that was originally produced in the fall out of the big bang, it has uses in many emerging technologies. Lithium batteries have enabled the development of compact phones and electric cars, as they are smaller and lighter than previous batteries and they retain their charge for longer. Lithium batteries also provide a promising alternative to how we consume energy - storing electricity generated from the sun and wind, and bypassing the need for the world’s rapidly depleting supply of fossil fuels.
Scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs are all interested in producing lithium batteries to meet the demands of our fast evolving use of technology. Their main areas of interest are in the extraction of this valuable element and production of more efficient lithium batteries.
Currently, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina supply over two thirds of the world’s lithium. It is unstable on its own and is most commonly found bound to sulphur. In order to extract lithium for commercial use, scientists are evolving more effective ways to extract it to its purest state. There are several ways to do this, and techniques include intermediate procedures that mix lithium sulphate with calcium carbonate. Most of the lithium obtained in South America is exported to China as newly formed lithium carbonate, and it then undergoes further processing for battery production.
Tesla are one of the world leaders in lithium battery technology and are based in the US. The fast growing company have this year developed a lithium battery to store energy generated from solar panels - the Powerwall – as well producing batteries to power their line of electric cars. In order to meet the supply of lithium needed for these products, Tesla have purchasing agreements with numerous lithium extracting companies who source their lithium in South America, and more recently from Nevada where there is an abundance of brine containing lithium, which makes it cheaper and easier to extract.
As well as the fine tuning of lithium extraction, the past decade has seen a huge improvement in the performance of lithium batteries. This has involved developing techniques to squeeze as many lithium ions into a small battery as possible, and getting them to flow between the cathode and anode of the battery as quickly and efficiently as possible. All this while making sure that the battery is safe.
The latest exciting advances come from engineers developing “lithium-air” batteries which oxidise lithium at the anode and reduce it at the cathode. These batteries have the potential to hold 10 times more charge than current lithium ion batteries, with enough energy when charged to power a car the length of England. This progress promises to change our capacity to use batteries and to revolutionise how we harness renewable energy in the future.
The current and predicted rate of lithium mining does have its caveats. For example, currently the amount of liquid being drawn out in Bolivia is more than the liquid replenishing the area, leading to a decrease in the water table. The production of lithium is set to increase, leading to the question of how exhaustive supplies will be in the future. Parallel advances in energy storage technology include the development of other battery types, including potassium-ion batteries. Potassium forms a large proportion of the earth’s crust and therefore provides the potential to bypass the need for lithium if future supplies do not meet the increasing demand.