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Time line: You will have 2 weeks to complete the on-line discussion as a team. Use this blog to capture your thoughts, perspectives, ideas, and revisions as you work together on this problem. This activity is discussion-based, meaning you will participate through a collaborative exchange and critique of each other’s ideas and work. The goal is to challenge and support one another as a team to tap your collective resources and experiences to dig more deeply into the issue(s) raised in the scenario. Since the idea is that everyone in the discussion will refine his/her ideas through the discussion that develops, you should try to respond well before the activity ends so that the discussion has time to mature. It is important to make your initial posts and subsequent responses in a timely manner. You are expected to make multiple posts during each stage of this on-going discussion. The timeline below suggests how to pace your discussion. This is just a suggestion. Feel free to pace the discussion as you see fit.
Tuesday Week 1 Initial Posts: All participants post initial responses to these instructions (see below) and the scenario.
Thursday Week 1 Response Posts: Participants respond by tying together information and perspectives on important points and possible approaches. Participants identify gaps in information and seek to fill those gaps.
Tuesday Week 2 Refine Posts: Participants work toward agreement on what is most important, determine what they still need to find out, & evaluate one or more approaches from the previous week’s discussion.
Thursday Week 2 Polish Final Posts: Participants come to an agreement on what is most important, and propose one or more approaches to address the issue/s.
Discussion Instructions
Imagine that you are a team of engineers working together for a company or organization to address the issue raised in the scenario. Discuss what your team would need to take into consideration to begin to address the issue. You do not need to suggest specific technical solutions, but identify the most important factors and suggest one or more viable approaches.
Suggestions for discussion topics
• Identify the primary and secondary problems raised in the scenario.
• Who are the major stakeholders and what are their perspectives?
• What outside resources (people, literature/references, and technologies) could be engaged in developing viable approaches?
• Identify related contemporary issues.
• Brainstorm a number of feasible approaches to address the issue.
• Consider the following contexts: economic, environmental, cultural/societal, and global. What impacts would the approaches you brainstormed have on these contexts?
• Come to agreement on one or more viable approaches and state the rationale.
Lithium mining for lithium-ion electrical vehicle batteries
The US government is investing heavily in sustainable resource research and development in order to decrease national oil consumption, and automotive industries around the world are competing in a global race for “sustainable mobility”. There were about 52 million total vehicles produced in the world in 2009, and replacing a significant amount of them with highly electrified vehicles poses a major challenge. The state of California is targeting 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) on its streets by 2020. By that same date, Nissan forecasts that EVs will become 10% of all global sales.
Battery technology is currently the major bottleneck in EV design. In 2009, President Obama announced $2.4 billion in grants to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of next generation batteries and EVs. Lithium-ion batteries are the first choice for the emerging EV generation, (the Chevy Volt, the Volvo C30, the Nissan Leaf), because they feature high power density, manageable operating temperatures, and are relatively easy to recharge on the grid.
In spite of its potential, lithium may not be the answer to the EV battery challenge. Lithium, which is recovered from lithium carbonate (Li2CO3), is not an unlimited resource. Lithium-based batteries are already used in almost all portable computers, cell phones and small appliances. Utility-scale lithium-based energy storage devices are in the works for smart grid applications, such as balancing energy supply-demand fluctuations. Lithium is also extensively used in a number of processes we take for granted: the manufacturing of glass, grits, greases and aluminum, among others. This makes accurate estimations of future demand in relation to resource availability almost impossible.
According to Meridian International Research, an independent renewable-energy think tank, there is insufficient recoverable lithium in the earth's crust to sustain electric vehicle manufacture based on Li-ion batteries in the volumes required by the mass market. Lithium depletion rates would exceed current oil depletion rates, potentially switching dependency from one diminishing resource to another. The United States Geological Survey reports that the Salar de Uyuni salt pans of Bolivia contain the largest untapped reserve of lithium in the world – an estimated 5.4 million metric tons or almost 50% of the global lithium reserve base. Other estimates put the Bolivian resource as high as 9 million metric tons. Bolivian president, Evo Morales, has consistently rejected bids by Mitsubishi and Toyota to mine lithium in his country and has announced plans to develop a state-controlled lithium mining operation. Prices of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) have more than doubled since 2004. Lithium batteries are costly, too; battery packs for vehicles cost upwards of $20,000 alone, driving up the overall cost.
Lithium CAN be recycled, but there is little existing infrastructure. In 2009, a California company, Toxco Waste Management, received $9.5 million in grants from the US Department of Energy to help build the first US-based facility for recycling lithium batteries in anticipation of demand.
How much lithium is needed to power an electric vehicle?
Energy requirements………………………..16 kilowatt hours (specified for Chevy Volt)
Lithium estimates per kWh……………….0.431 kg (US Department of Transportation estimate)
Total lithium for one Chevy Volt……….6.86 kg
Total Li2CO3 for one Chevy Volt ......... 36.5 kg
Total Li2CO3 one million PHEVs ..........36,500 metric tons
Sources
Lithium Dreams: Can Bolivia Become the Saudi Arabia of the Electric-Car Era? (March 22, 2010). The New Yorker.
Lithium Largesse? (August 2009). American Ceramic Society Bulletin.
US Department of Energy, Press Release. (August 5, 2009)
Bolivia’s Lithium Mining Dilemma. (September 8, 2008) BBC News.
The Trouble with Lithium: Implications of Future PHEV Production for Lithium Demand. (2007). Meridian International Research.
What I understand from the discussion instructions is that our team must determine what the actual problem is from the given article and produce a rational solution that we as a team can agree on.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that we must do is determine what the main problem is biased on what the article gives us. The second step would be to gather other sources of information to build on what we already know about the problem to form possible solutions and come up with a solution that would best solve the problem.
From what I understand after reading the article is that the main problem is not that Bolivia will not allow the mining of lithium by foreigners for the production of batteries, but how lithium as an alternate source of energy is not the best solution to the energy crisis.
The article mentions that that there is not enough lithium in Bolivia to supply the energy demand. Lithium can be recycled, but the problem with that is that there is not enough lithium currently in use.
In conclusion I suggest that the team try and find an alternative energy that the majority of the world can produce.
I believe the primary problem here is will whether or not heavily investing in lithium mining and lithium battery technology is beneficial to society. If lithium is not an unlimited resource, should companies be investing money into this technology or should they be investing money into finding or using renewable resources for transportation? I’m sure there is an opportunity for companies to make a profit on mining and selling lithium, but that poses another question; is the profit made by the companies worth the danger you put the miners in, the resources used to mine the lithium, and the potential destruction of natural environments? Unless a very effective way to recycle lithium batteries is designed, I don’t think it is in the best interest of society to pursue advancing in the lithium battery industry. I agree with Antonio, it would be better for society to invest this money into finding and improving renewable green fuel transportation technology.
ReplyDeleteThe engineering industry has migrated into an interesting dynamic involving a global interactions forced by the necessity of resources and desire for technology. In the pursuit of understanding the scenario, this is what I was able to glean from the article:
ReplyDeleteThe US recognizes fossil fuels as a limited resource and also an unstable resource with the political unrest in the lands that manage a good portion of the raw reserves. Therefore, the US is pursuing research and implementation of sustainable methods for transportation and energy generation to offset the dependents on a limited resource. This has led to the investment in developing Electric Vehicles which largely depends on the efficiency and quality of the energy storage (aka the battery). In narrowing the research and development on the battery, the lithium ion has revealed itself to be the “first choice” for emerging EVs. This inherently puts a major demand on the mining and refining of lithium which as far as can be determined is also a limited resource. Large corporations heading up research and development in this area greatly desire unhindered access and for a long time Latin America was an easy region to get raw resources from and Bolivia has a large lithium deposit there. Due to social respect, sense of individual rights, and the hesitation to prevent large corporations from taking advantage of them, Bolivia prevented lithium mining in hope to develop the industry in country so that the local people may benefit as well.
In this dilemma, I see the foundational issue to be the national pursuit, unhealthy dependents, and rapid increase in consumption of power. The profound dependence of the US on electrical and fossil fuel power becomes unstable when fossil fuels are forecasted to be fully depleted within a century. This balance of power needs and resources used is the main issue that has pushed the US to consider other options, such as electric cars with lithium batteries.
The secondary issue pertaining to the US is the pursuit to use the lithium ion batteries as an alternative resource within cars. Another issue pertaining to the US but of more locally relevance to Bolivia, is the mining of lithium.
Several questions I come up with are:
- If the US is seeking alternative resources from a limited resource (fossil fuel), why are we pursuing another limited resource (lithium) again?
- If we are looking at developing EVs for regions like California, where is the electricity coming from to power the electrical cars? (on average, 70% of electricity generated is lost in transmission and California purchases a good portion of its electrical power from Oregon and Washington)
- If the US has no quality recycling infrastructure for lithium batteries, then what does the US do when a whole manufacturing line of batteries reaches the end of its life expectancy?
Antonio has a great final suggestion that the goal of US and our own research be in exploring alternative energy, in addition the lithium batteries. Also the question Cameron presents puts into investigation the life line of the lithium resource which needs to be taken into account in the large scheme of things. In conjunction with alternative energy and sustainability, I believe it is necessary that the conservation of energy/resources be taken into account along with sustainable design.
Kage makes some great points! I completely agree that the last question listed needs to be asked. I believe that battery recycling needs to be investigated as a primary source to resolve this issue. In Europe (I am not sure if it is all of Europe or just certain countries) car manufacturers become responsible for their vehicles after a certain amount of time has passed. The car manufacturers are responsible for collecting the vehicles after they are no longer in use and can then recycle any reusable components from the reclaimed vehicle. I think that this option needs to be investigated as a possible solution.
ReplyDeleteBut, as mentioned in class today, a single solution will not solve the whole problem. The answer will be a combination of many individual solutions.
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ReplyDeleteThis is on the behalf of Chad Tobias because he is experiencing issues that are incomprehensible.
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Today’s world is experiencing a huge dilemma when it comes to energy sources and energy storage. It seems that every major consumer of fossil fuels in the world is looking at new technology that will cut down the dependence on fossil fuels. Many car manufacturers are looking into fully electric vehicles. The number one choices for the power storage of these vehicles are the lithium ion batteries because of the versatility of use and great power density. But unlike fossil fuels lithium ion batteries are not a power source but merely a power storage device. This means that the power that runs these vehicles is still coming from other sources. About 75% of the power generated in the United States utilities sector is generated from fossil fuels (Department of Energy,2007, eia.doe.gov). This means that if every vehicle in the United States was replaced with a fully electric vehicle it would reduce the amount of fossil fuel consumption in the transportation sector by 25%.
But it doesn’t stop there. Lithium ion batteries don’t grow on trees. In fact, the scope of this blog is purely on the mining and processing of lithium to be made into batteries. Fossil fuels will be consumed to mine the lithium, refine the lithium, transport the lithium, and then to make the lithium batteries. Then in the end we are still mining coal and natural gas to burn in power plants to charge these batteries. So I’m not so sure where we are seeing the savings in fossil fuel consumption. It seems to me that this could ultimately raise the amount of fossil fuels being used.
When environmental impact is taken into account there are several areas in which we are concerned with. Fist is the mining of the lithium that will completely devastate and destroy the area where it comes from. Second is the cars that use the lithium ion batteries as there power source. Fully electric cars have no emissions… this is a complete hoax that the general public seems to believe. The emissions of the electric vehicle can’t just be evaluated as the car drives down the road but an overall evaluation of the manufacturing and power supply of the cars batteries. This means we need to look at the emissions of the mining and refining of the lithium to make the batteries as well as look where the power is coming from to charge these batteries.
After thinking about this subject for several days and looking at the grand scheme of things I myself think that fully electric cars that use lithium ion batteries are not only the not the answer to the energy crisis but shouldn’t even be taken into consideration for an intermediate step towards green technology. The use of fossil fuels that will be consumed for mining the lithium could be used for transportation in the same matter that we currently use them and we would save on the fossil fuels that would be consumed to charge the batteries.
In my personal opinion I think that looking into cleaning up transportation technology is not the start towards a greener future, but rather using renewable resources and lower emission power plants for generating electricity. Once this is accomplished then the use of fully electric vehicles makes more sense.
By Chad
Under the assumptions that lithium will be mined in Bolivia and the Bolivian government will not allow US participation, I propose that the US government should take a large part of the EV manufacturing budget of $2.4 billion and add it to the $9 million used for recycle facilities. I assume a large amount of lithium batteries will be made and used, so if the US can be the top recycler in the world, we could still profit from integration of lithium batteries.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I don’t believe only using lithium to power vehicles is the best option. It is predicted that the lithium reserve will be depleted before oil reserves if the demand increases as projected. I an attempt to prolong the use of lithium, I think an effort should be made to produce vehicles that utilize multiple energy sources. This could extend the life of the oil reserves and lithium reserves.
Kage presents good questions to consider. The first question states, “Why is the US pursuing another limited source of energy such as lithium?” One reason I can think of is that there is a large group of investors that want to make money off of the EV market. Investors may not understand that lithium is a limited resource as a problem and might only be interested in the short term financial gains. One of the most difficult problems would be to convince people that a combination of fuel types would be a better solution than a single fuel type.
ReplyDeleteThe Taxco Company located in California was given $9.5 million dollars to incorporate trial lithium operation in its Ohio facility. Further research shows that Ohio’s electrical energy is made up of 86% coal and 10% nuclear. If the recycling plant runs off of coal energy then recycling lithium batteries will generate more CO2 in the atmosphere resulting in more harm than good by using lithium. As Chad mentioned on March 31, minimizing emissions of power plants should be a primary goal in order to recycle materials for alternative energy in a cleaner way.
If the production of power is able to be done in a clean way (lower emission) the recycling of lithium batteries could be part of the solution. A combination of lithium batteries, bio-fuels and solar panels may result in a good combination to incorporate in a car.
I like where Cameron is going with the idea to develop an efficient recycle process for the lithium batteries. Since the US doesn’t have the raw resource at hand with Bolivia and other countries holding tight to their lithium deposits, then I see it potentially being a good option to invest into. It may not initially be the most cost effective, however when the global access to lithium becomes limited due to an over consumption and the prices of fossil fuels go up then the demand will possibly be heightened to a point where recycled lithium becomes cost effective.
ReplyDeleteIn a conversation with a manager at Avista, he said the current rate of energy consumption increase is greater than the rate of added energy generation. Therefore the need to use sustainable resources for energy generation is becoming more important. I believe, that just as an ecosystem is strongest when there is a high level of biodiversity, the power generation industry is stronger when it taps into a variety of reasonable resources. Thus, the investigation into lithium ion batteries in EV could be beneficial to our economy, as long as there is a healthy pursuit into other resources for transportation. Just as Antonio connected, if the electrical power generation is done in a clean manner then the manufacturing and charging of the batteries would be clean as well. Our society has developed an aspect of our culture around vehicles, especially personal vehicle. The EV’s could have potential for being a quality urban car. This would decrease vehicle fuel emission (a major cause of smog and this would only be beneficial if the power grid was supplied by clean energy), create more space on the road since they are more compact, and make parking easier.
Although, another option to solve these problems is to improve public transportation and develop communities that travel together and decrease the number of vehicles with only one occupant.
After doing a small amount of research on the salt fields that lie on top of the lithium ore, it seems that the Bolivian government isn’t necessarily against the mining of lithium. These fields where the lithium exists is a desert that is uninhabitable and useless otherwise. The Bolivian government just doesn’t want foreign companies to come in and mine the lithium on their land. They want the control over this resource that the rest of the world seems to want so much.
ReplyDeleteBecause lithium is a highly limited resource that is predicted to have a higher depletion rate then the crude oil that we will burn to charge these batteries it is in our best interest to invest our money into recycling plants like Cameron mentioned. Its Bolivia’s resource so they have the right to keep out all foreign mining companies if they so desire. I say we put the demand out there to the Bolivian government letting them know that they have a market worth investing in and put our own money into recycling plants so that we can sustain the resource once it has been imported.
But we also need to remember that this lithium is not a power or energy source, but merely a way to store power. So if we can’t find a cleaner way then fossil fuel fire power plants to charge these batteries then having fully electric vehicles is pointless. Looking into power transportation and mechanical efficiency it is very obvious that burning the fuel where the energy is used is more efficient then burning the fuel and transporting it to the vehicle.
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ReplyDeleteIndustrial nations have begun to change from the mentality of “bigger is better”, which emphasizes performance of products, to a desire for improving efficiency and sustainability. This is seen in small scale personal energy audits, improving basic appliances, home sized alternative energy systems, large initiatives like Smart Grid, large wind and solar farms (they are not as efficient as other resources but use a renewable resource for generation), and government and private investments into R&D. This transformation has been catalyzed by the greater realization of how limited our resources truly are. For a long time it has been understood that fossil fuels resources have an end to their timeline. However more resources that are requiring consumption management are fresh water, forests, copper, fish, lithium, and others. Even though some of these items are considered to be renewable, the rate at which they are being consumed in certain areas is greater than they are being replenished. As a global community, we are developing a greater need for managing the consumption rate of natural resources.
ReplyDeleteOne method to mitigate the demand on raw materials is recycling and, as Cameron mentioned previously, it would benefit the US to investment in recycling lithium batteries. Since lithium batteries have recently been discovered to be preferred over other batteries, especially regarding electrical vehicles, there is going to be a rise in usage and therefore increase the need for domestic and industrial disposal services.
The plot of “Secondary Cell Energy Density” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery) shows batteries consisting of lithium having a high energy density and specific power compared to other common battery compositions. This means a high voltage and lighter weight, plus they have a long life and wide operating temperature range. This makes the addition of lithium batteries in electrical vehicles more practical than other batteries. As a result, the scale up of rechargeable lithium ion/polymer batteries has grown substantially in the past five years (www.toxco.com/aboutrecycle.html).
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ReplyDeleteAlso, lithium is used for other purposes in addition to batteries, such as: glass, ceramics, lubrication greases, continuous casting, air treatment, and other items (minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/lithium/mcs-2010-lithi.pdf). To pursue the further development in recycling lithium would be investing in afore mentioned products or processes.
ReplyDeleteIf recycled lithium batteries are given a place to be processes and companies support the initiative to maintain the resource’s usability, then recycling could be effective. For example: to the credit of the automotive industry, the recycling of lead acid batteries has been organized to the point were about 97% of lead acid batteries are recycled and 50% lead used in car batteries come from recycled material. As a result, materials are saved and toxic waste is not placed in land fills (batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/recycling_batteries).
A similar dynamic can be achieved with the recycling of lithium batteries. The US based company, Toxco Inc., has kick started the recycling of lithium batteries. It is said they are the only company that processes recycled large lithium batteries. In addition to locally recycled batteries, they receive spent batteries from Nigeria, Indonesia, expired military components and others. With the rise in battery usage it is anticipated they will be supplied with more batteries and a demand for recycling plants will increase.
ReplyDeleteSome more thoughts:
-how to break down the cost (price per ton of lithium batteries exclusively or for batteries in general and this needs to incorporate transportation)
-Types of processing plants (fewer large plants, more smaller plants, capable of doing everything, or specialized in processing lithium batteries)
-Development of recycling programs to get individuals and companies involved
-How much lithium can be recovered from a recycled battery and be reused
Good work Kage, this research shows that the importance of recycling the lithium batteries can be stressed to the public with such effectiveness that we can maintain the resource after it has been imported.
ReplyDeleteLooking at some cleaner power production I have done a little research in the geothermal world. For those of you who are not familiar with this style of power production here is a brief explanation. We all know that the core of the earth is naturally hot through radioactive decay and the massive amount of friction it experiences. What geothermal power plants attempt to do is collect this energy and use it to make power. There are many different methods of doing this but basically we pump water into the ground were we know there is hot rocks then pump it back to the surface to turn a turbine and produce power. Lots of the complications that come from this however, is that the water isn’t hot enough to be turned to steam and therefore can’t turn the turbine with much force. Binary systems that use a secondary fluid to turn the turbine have been very popular in recent year. A heat transfer unit is used so that the energy from the hot water pumped from the ground is transferred into the secondary fluid that has a much lower boiling temperature is flashed into its gaseous state and has plenty of energy to turn the turbine.
CO2 emissions of these geothermal power plants are about 1/8 of that of a coal fire power plant. Worldwide geothermal plants produce 10.7 GW of power we use. The United States has the largest geothermal power production producing more than 3,000 MW of power. It would be another good investment for the United States to look into other large scale green energy power production like that of the geothermal power plant to replace the fossil fuel fire power plants.
Although I think the point of this discussion it to come up with a way to improve the mining, production, and recycling of the lithium battery, I think the greater problem is developing a way to store energy for use in electric vehicles. The research done by some of you suggests strongly that mining lithium is already limited to Bolivia and their government. So I suggest exploring other ways to store energy.
ReplyDeleteAfter doing some research, I found that an alternative to the lithium battery is the zinc-air battery. Lithium batteries provide a higher discharge rate and they are easier to handle which is why lithium batteries are preferred at this time. However, the availability of zinc is 100 times greater than lithium per amount used in one battery. Zinc oxide can be easily replaced with fresh zinc pellets, then the zinc oxide can be recycled. An added benefit to using a zinc based battery is about 35% of the worlds zinc reserves or in the US compared to 0.038% of the lithium reserves (mechinedesign.com). Also, according to mechinedesign.com these batteries would take 10 hrs for a full recharge, it is completely recyclable, and would never have to shut down for refueling. Zinc-air batteries can store three times as much energy per unit volume as lithium batteries and cost half as much (technologyreview.com). Also, according to revottechnology.com zinc-air batteries are completely safe and contain no toxic products, whereas lithium batteries do.
So, it appears if some effort goes into improving the discharge rate or the zinc-air battery, it could be a viable alternative to the lithium battery.
From the various post I conclude that the best solution would be to make the power plants run cleaner by using geothermal power plant rather than using coal burning power plants. Second would be to create recycling plant for lithium and zinc.
ReplyDeleteTo extend the life of fossil fuel and lithium deposits using other sources of fuel in combination with lithium batteries would be beneficial. If efforts go to improve the zinc-air battery the importation of lithium from Bolivia can be minimized since zinc can be attained from the US.
There might be a better solution, but for the given 2 weeks we had to discuss this problem I think our team came up with good ideas to solve the problem.