Uncertain Future of American Lithium: A Perspective until 2050

Abstract

During the 20th century, the United States went from being the largest producer and user of lithium to being heavily reliant on imports from Asia, particularly lithium-ion batteries. To explore different futures for U.S. lithium, we here generate four scenariosincluding COVID-19 implicationsthat model lithium use for its main applications: electric and hybrid vehicles, stationary energy storage systems, and small electronics. We find that the "Sustainable Future" scenario requires the highest amount of lithium (cumulatively 1281 Gg in the period 2020−2050, peak inflow in 2040 at 53 Gg); in contrast, "Fossil Fuel Everything" requires only 500 Gg and peaks in 2050 at 26 Gg. COVID-19 implications appear to be negligible in the long run. The future electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet and energy storage systems will depend upon a reliable and resilient international supply chain of lithium chemicals and/ or batteries as well as vigorous recycling efforts.

Migration and Transformation Mechanism of Toxic Electrolytes During Mechanical Treatment of Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

“…Lithium-ion battery (LIB)-powered products, such as office products, household facilities, and electric vehicles, have been widely applied in daily life. − Nowadays, the demand in electric vehicles is growing rapidly to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. It is forecasted that the number of electric vehicles will increase from 4 million in 2018 to around 50–200 million in 2028 and 900 million by 2048 .…”

Trade-off between critical metal requirement and transportation decarbonization in automotive electrification

“…Despite the efforts made to project the impacts of EV deployment, several knowledge gaps still remain. First, most studies investigated a specific transportation sector 22 , 27 – 29 , 31 – 33 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 41 – 55 or a specific category of EVs 27 – 29 , 31 – 33 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 42 – 55 . Lacking perspective from the full range of vehicles composing a fleet may lead to incomplete or truncated conclusions.…”

“…Hence, investigating the effects of deploying EVs on critical metals requirements and mitigation of transportation GHG emissions is essential. Past studies have explored the GHG emissions mitigation potential and critical material requirements of electrifying transportation in specific countries and regions, including China [22][23][24][25][26][27] , the USA 26,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34] , Europe 8,26,[34][35][36][37][38] , India 26,39,40 , and the world [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] , for various road transportation sectors corresponding to passenger vehicles 8,[24][25][26][27][38][39][40]44,45,50 , freight 8,25,31 , light-duty vehicles …”

“…Despite the efforts made to project the impacts of EV deployment, several knowledge gaps still remain. First, most studies investigated a specific transportation sector 22,[27][28][29][31][32][33]36,37,39,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] or a specific category of EVs [27][28][29][31][32][33]36,37,39,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] . Lacking perspective from the full range of vehicles composing a fleet may lead to incomplete or truncated conclusions.…”

The value of hydrogen for global climate change mitigation

“…Recently, there has been renewed interest in hydrogen as an energy carrier. Among low-carbon energy carriers, hydrogen may be advantageous to electricity due to the relatively low energy storage density, materials, and mass of batteries for on-board energy storage in electric vehicles [1,2]. Hydrogen may also impact food prices as well as terrestrial and marine ecosystems less strongly than negative emission technologies (NETs), and does not require carbon capture and storage (CCS) in order to provide zero-carbon energy [3,4,5].…”