There’s loads of column inches given to the environmental benefits of electrical autos, like decreasing air air pollution and greenhouse gasoline emission. However there’s a salty little secret typically obscured by those that wax lyrical about EVs — the environmental affect of the lithium mined to make EV batteries.
So I made a decision to take a deep dive into what it’s, the place it comes from, the way it’s mined, its environmental affect, and what we will do to make it greener.
And don’t fear — no geology diploma is required.
What’s lithium?
Lithium is a naturally occurring substance present in ionic minerals corresponding to petalite, lepidolite, and spodumene. These minerals happen primarily in two locations: rock formations, or underground brine reservoirs.
What’s lithium used for?
Lithium is most often known as an ingredient in rechargeable batteries. These embody people who energy medical units, cellphones, computer systems, energy instruments, and much more apart from. It is usually present in hybrid and all-electric automobiles, buses, ferries, drones and, often, airplane batteries.
Based on IHS Markit, in 2000, about 9% of lithium produced was used for batteries. By 2020, this share rose to 66%, and it’s forecasted to succeed in over 90% by 2030.
For some context, a totally electrical car (corresponding to a Tesla Mannequin S) accommodates an estimated 63kg of lithium.
The place does lithium come from?
According to the US Geological Survey information, Australia is the most important miner of lithium, with the bulk coming from hard rock ores situated at The Greenbushes Projects. That is the world’s largest single lithium reserve.
Following that’s what’s often known as the “Lithium Triangle of South America” — made up of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia.
The area hosts extra lithium than Australia, however mines much less. It advantages from geological circumstances that create lithium-rich salt flats. One of many major extraction sources is within the Salar de Atacama (Chile), immersed within the Atacama Desert (the driest on this planet). One other is the Salar del Hombre Muerto salt flat in Argentina.
Third on the record is China, with a lot of the nation’s lithium coming from the Chang Tang plain in western Tibet. Nonetheless, China is lagging behind in extraction, because the nation imports a variety of lithium from Australia.
Lithium mining additionally happens to a lesser extent in varied locations, together with North America, Africa, and Portugal.
How is it mined?
There are two foremost methods relying on the place the supply of lithium is.
Rock mining:
In rock mining, stable rock is drilled and blasted, then crushed. Following that, the lithium is separated from the remainder of the rock utilizing chemical substances and warmth.
That is the commonest type of mining in Australia and the US.
Salt extraction:
In salt extraction, lithium comes from underground reservoirs in lakes the place salty water is pumped right into a sequence of shallow ponds and left to evaporate for 12 to 18 months.
That is then topic to a number of chemical therapies to go away behind the “white gold” lithium.
South America, China, and Africa favor the salt extraction technique.
However sadly, there are downsides:
- Mining from salt mines is water-intensive. It takes 8 million liters (500,000 gallons) of water to supply one-ton of lithium.
- Based on the Institute of Energy Research, mining firms in Chile’s Salar de Atacama, one of many driest locations on earth, use 65% of the area’s water.
- Eradicating the brine lowers the water desk, threatening supplies needed for drinking and irrigation.
- Lithium mining makes use of poisonous chemical substances which might contaminate streams, crops, native ecosystems and wildlife.
- The remoted areas might be residence to endangered flora, just like the uncommon desert wildflower Tiehm’s buckwheat within the Silver Peak, Nevada.
- Mining operations in Salar de Atacama are linked to the decline of two threatened flamingo species residing within the basin.
- There may be additionally what researchers name “the colonial shadow of green electromobility,” which is the affect lithium mining has on the native surroundings and inhabitants in Latin America. They assert that lithium mining replicates the historic inequalities between the Northern and Southern hemispheres, particularly impacting indigenous Andean territories.
Is there a greener method?
Happily, sure. Two distinguished gamers within the efforts to inexperienced lithium mining are Australian startup Vulcan, working in Southern Germany, and Cornish Lithium within the UK.
Each are working to extract lithium within the respective areas’ deep thermal waters with a net-zero carbon footprint.
The method attracts on naturally occurring, renewable geothermal power to energy the lithium extraction renewable power by-product. Deeper waters are considerably hotter than at a shallower depth. This creates the potential for using geothermal waters to supply zero-carbon electrical energy in addition to warmth. This electrical energy might energy a lithium extraction planet extract lithium from the identical waters.
For instance, Cornish Lithium is planning to immediately extract the lithium from the fluids in a processing plant that’ll have a footprint the scale of a grocery store or medium-sized industrial unit.
It’s not all plain crusing although, as each firms are nonetheless within the early levels of exploration. It’s additionally unclear whether or not the methodology would scale to different present lithium mining areas — however not less than it’s a step in the best route.
Electrical batteries will likely be a useful supply of power within the subsequent few a long time. The problem is to make their elements sustainable, but in addition be sure that at present circulating lithium experiences a full lifecycle and is recycled in a method that doesn’t adversely affect the planet.
Lithium-ion batteries aren’t going away any time quickly, and we will count on to see additional R&D of their chemistry, utility, and after-life affect. Let’s simply hope it’s not too little too late.
