Understanding the future of lithium: Part 2, temporally and spatially resolved life‐cycle assessment modeling

Ambrose, Hanjiro; Kendall, Alissa

doi:10.1111/jiec.12942

Cited by 67 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Another novel feature of this study is the inclusion of battery reuse and repurposing strategies in the assessment of lithium recycling, a gap in some previous studies that could affect the timing and availability of recycling potential. The underlying data, the model approach, and results are transparently reported to provide a basis for part two of this article series, the LCA (Ambrose & Kendall, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the future of lithium: Part 1, resource model

Ambrose

Kendall

2019

J of Industrial Ecology

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126

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Lithium is a critical energy material in part due to an array of emerging technologies from electric vehicles to renewable energy systems that rely on large‐format lithium ion batteries. Recent growth in demand for lithium is primarily from increased use in batteries, which comprised 46% of total lithium by end use in 2017. These technologies are often deployed to improve environmental sustainability, yet the environmental effects and sustainability of the resources they rely on are often not well understood, especially as demand increases over time. This is the first in a two part article series that together quantify the lithium resource use and its environmental effects over time by coupling a resource production model and life cycle assessment model. In this first part, a novel resource production model is developed to create scenarios of future lithium demand and production characteristics (e.g., timing, location, and ore type). These scenarios are then used to create a life cycle assessment in part two that captures temporal and spatial changes in production systems over time. Results of the resource production model show global lithium resources range from 293 to 527 million metric tons (Mt) of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). Global production will likely increase from 237,000 metric tons LCE in 2018 to 4.4–7.5 Mt LCE/year by 2100. Even with rapidly increasing demand, production from high‐grade brines may satisfy most lithium demand through 2035. Though resources can meet demand through 2100, development of lower grade and unfavorable deposits is likely required after 2050.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the future of lithium: Part 1, resource model

Ambrose

Kendall

2019

J of Industrial Ecology

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126

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“…However, by 2015, 32% of lithium and 46% of cobalt were used for Li þ -ion batteries production. [45] On the other hand, other elements, viz., graphite, copper, aluminum, manganese, and nickel, have not been affected significantly. Therefore, finding sufficient supply of lithium has geared up mining industries for higher production.…”

Section: Cathode Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Battery Materials for Next‐Generation Electrical Energy Storage

Manthiram

2021

Adv Energy and Sustain Res

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Global energy consumption is continuously increasing with population growth and rapid industrialization, which requires sustainable advancements in both energy generation and energy-storage technologies. [1] While bringing great prosperity to human society, the increasing energy demand creates challenges for energy resources and the consumption of conventional fossil fuels causes increasing greenhouse gas emission. [2] Therefore, for a sustainable energy future, new technologies and new ways of thinking are needed with respect to energy generation, storage, delivery, and consumption. [3] To enhance energy security and reduce the negative health and environmental impacts of fossil fuels, there has been growing focus on the exploration of renewable energy sources, among which solar, wind, tide, and wave energies represent successful sectors at present. [4] However, the renewable energies are usually not continuously available due to external factors that cannot be controlled. The requirements of addressing the intermittency issue of these clean energies have triggered a very rapidly developing area of research-electricity (or energy) storage. [5] Battery storage systems are emerging as one of the key solutions to effectively integrate intermittent renewable energies in power systems. [6] Setting power cable-free, rechargeable batteries have powered extensive types of mobile electronics that are supporting our modern life. [7] Highpower-density and high-energy-density rechargeable battery technologies are also presently under vigorous development for vehicle electrification. [8] Utility-scale batteries are expected to enable a great feed-in of renewables into the grid by storing excess generation and firming renewable energy output. [9] Scaling up from portable power sources to transportation-scale and grid-scale applications, the design of electrochemical storage systems needs to take into account the cost/abundance of materials, environmental/eco efficiency of cell chemistries, as well as the life cycle and safety analysis. [10] A number of currently existing rechargeable battery technologies can possibly fulfil some of the aforementioned sustainability requirements. However, existing intrinsic limitations of energy-storage capacity or technological hurdles are hampering the deployment toward large-scale applications. [11] In this perspective, we first give an overview of the currently existing rechargeable battery technologies from a sustainability point of view. With regard to energy-storage performance, lithium-ion batteries are leading all the other rechargeable battery chemistries in terms of both energy density and power density. However long-term sustainability concerns of lithium-ion technology are also obvious when examining the materials toxicity and the feasibility, cost, and availability of elemental resources. Based off of recent research advances, strategies and approaches toward the enhancement of sustainability of lithium-ion technologies are first discussed. Then, emerging and cutting-edge battery...

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“…There are a set of papers that investigate the specific challenges of conducting LCA of emerging technologies related to novel materials through a set of case studies. There is a two‐part set of papers titled “Understanding the future of lithium: Part 1, resource model” (Ambrose & Kendall, ) and “Understanding the future of lithium: Part 2, temporally and spatially resolved life‐cycle assessment modeling” (Ambrose & Kendall, ). These papers investigate the increasing role that lithium could play in the economy in the future using a novel resource model to generate scenarios of demand including location, production method, and grade of the lithium produced.…”

Section: Assessing Technologies For Novel Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing a life cycle perspective to emerging technology development

Bergerson

Cucurachi

Seager

2020

J of Industrial Ecology

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Bringing a life cycle perspective to emerging technology development"While the fundamental approach to conducting an LCA of emerging technologies is akin to that of LCA of existing technologies, emerging technologies pose additional challenges. Despite the growing interest in applying LCA at early stages of technology development, there is a lack of systematic guidance for LCA practitioners to evaluate emerging technologies." Current analysis of new technology typically applies economic, environmental, social, and technical performance assessments separately, conducted by individual specialists with little connection between the analyses. For example, engineers often fail to capture the full life cycle (LC) environmental impacts of a technology they are designing, both over its lifetime and with respect to upstream/downstream activities within the supply chain in which the technology will eventually be deployed. The vast majority of life cycle assessments (LCAs) are still conducted on technologies that are much closer to commercialization. This is despite wide recognition that the greatest potential to steer technology toward environmentally preferable outcomes exists at the earliest stages of technology development. The challenge is that this stage also coincides with the least available data, greatest uncertainty, and a paucity of analytic tools for addressing these challenges (Bergerson et al., 2019). While there has been some discussion of methods related to the assessment of emerging technologies, most studies to date are case studies related to specific technology applications, conditions, and regional settings. The spectrum of emerging technologies ranges from products or processes that are innovative and potentially disruptive, to the next generation of commercial products incorporating marginal changes to an incumbent technology (Bergerson et al., 2019). The challenges and opportunities across this spectrum require further discussion within the research community to address questions such as:• When is it useful to conduct an LCA and what questions can it reasonably answer at different stages of development and commercialization?• What aspects of the technology/adoption context need the most careful consideration?• With what other tools or techniques can/should the LCA be coupled?While the fundamental approach to conducting an LCA of emerging technologies is akin to that of LCA of existing technologies, emerging technologies pose additional challenges. Despite the growing interest in applying LCA at early stages of technology development, there is a lack of systematic guidance for LCA practitioners to evaluate emerging technologies. There remains confusion about how LCA can (or should) be used at different stages of technology development and market adoption. The procedures and tools employed to assess emerging technologies still tend to be applied on an ad hoc basis, with no clear guidelines as to what methods are available, applicable, or appropriate. While some authors review and provide recommendation...

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Understanding the future of lithium: Part 2, temporally and spatially resolved life‐cycle assessment modeling

Cited by 67 publications

References 39 publications

Understanding the future of lithium: Part 1, resource model

Understanding the future of lithium: Part 1, resource model

Sustainable Battery Materials for Next‐Generation Electrical Energy Storage

Bringing a life cycle perspective to emerging technology development

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