Lithium-ion batteries aren't going away any time soon, at least for the next decade or so. Scientists have been well aware of the safety and sustainability risks associated with lithium-ion . Contact online >>
Lithium-ion batteries aren''t going away any time soon, at least for the next decade or so. Scientists have been well aware of the safety and sustainability risks associated with lithium-ion
Lithium-ion batteries keep getting better and cheaper, but researchers are tweaking the technology further to eke out greater performance and lower costs. Some of the motivation comes from the...
The new manufacturing process is resulting in a lower carbon footprint for the product and reduced fire hazards during use. In contrast to lithium, which is more geographically limited, sodium
A new factory will be the first full-scale plant to produce sodium-ion batteries in the US. The chemistry could provide a cheaper alternative to the standard lithium-ion chemistry and avoid
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"The concern is, do we have enough resources to make all these lithium-ion batteries for every application? That's part of the drive for the US government is to be thinking long term about other chemistries," Vincent Battaglia, head of the Electrochemical Technologies Group with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told CNET.
Lithium-ion batteries are currently the most energy dense batteries we have on the market. Energy density is the amount of energy you're able to store in a given amount of space.
"You can have devices that have lots of energy, but take up very little space and weight," Battaglia said. "Those are very useful for when you want to carry things around like cell phones and laptops and other personal devices and all the way up through electric vehicles."
Lithium-ion batteries also win the popularity contest because they're rechargeable, but there's more to it than that. They have a relatively long cycle life, which is one of the ways manufacturers measure how long the battery will last. Think of it as a way of measuring just how rechargeable your battery is.
As with anything else, price is also important. These batteries have become relatively cheap to manufacture and produce. This is partly due to the low cost of the raw materials necessary to make the battery. And as these batteries continue to grow in mass production, the cost of manufacturing continues to get cheaper as well.
"The price of lithium-ion batteries initially when they started on the market wasn't that cheap compared to the other competitors," Eungie Lee, a materials scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, told CNET. "But the price has been dropping down significantly over the past decade."
Materials scientists and engineers have been improving the manufacturing process of lithium-ion batteries for years. Scientists have found chemically compatible and cheaper materials, while engineers continue to pack more of those materials into the same space, according to Lee.
The biggest safety issue with lithium-ion batteries by far is the risk of it catching fire. Lithium-ion batteries rely on a liquid electrolyte solution in order to charge and discharge the battery properly. It does this by moving lithium ions between the positive side (cathode) and negative side (anode) of the battery, acting as a middle man of sorts. The problem is that this electrolyte is flammable.
Lithium-ion batteries don't play well with heat. If a battery cell starts to overheat, pressure will build up within the cell and open the pressure release port, Battaglia said. These release ports are to help release the pressure and keep the battery from exploding. However, what gets released is a flammable gas vapor that could potentially catch fire. This spreads to the other battery cells and forms a chain reaction.
The actual likelihood of a lithium-ion battery catching fire is extremely low. But it does happen. Fires caused by lithium-ion batteries have been on the rise in New York in particular, with e-bikes and scooters posing the biggest risk. These fires are dangerous and can spread quickly. It's also why there are some specific regulations around taking batteries on airplanes.
Lithium-ion batteries are great and all, but the process of actually mining the lithium carries some downsides for the environment and areas where it's extracted. This is mainly due to the water and energy resources needed during the process.
Much of the world's lithium supply is mined in Chile and Australia. During the mining process, lithium is extracted from salty water brines found underground or on the surface. The liquid is pumped from the earth and divided into large pools and left to sit so the water can evaporate, leaving behind lithium and other materials.
In a way, lithium mining pollutes our air and water. The mining process takes up precious land and water resources. And while lithium has become an important part of the transition to renewables, most of the equipment necessary to operate the lithium mines are powered by fossil fuels.
While lithium is obviously the main element of a lithium-ion battery, there are other materials and metals in these batteries. Nickel and cobalt in particular have been used in many lithium-ion batteries, especially those in electric vehicles. Nickel is used to increase the energy density of the battery and cobalt is used to stabilize it, Lee said.
However, increasing the nickel content in the battery can only increase the battery's energy density by so much. Nickel and cobalt can get pretty pricey too. But it's not just money that we should be worried about: There's a human cost. Most of our world's cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo by people who work in inhumane conditions and breathe in toxic dust from the cobalt.
Now, scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory are working on how to use manganese as a sustainable alternative to expensive cobalt. Argonne researchers say manganese is much more affordable than cobalt. It's also a widely abundant resource and is a safer alternative than a battery packed with high concentrations of nickel.
Lithium-ion batteries aren't going away any time soon, at least for the next decade or so. Scientists have been well aware of the safety and sustainability risks associated with lithium-ion batteries for years. But developing new chemistries isn't easy, and lithium is hard to compete with. The good news is that US scientists have begun exploring a promising new alternative in sodium-ion batteries. But this comes with its own set of challenges.
"The biggest advantage is just the sodium itself. Compared to the lithium, it's much more abundant, and cheaper," Lee said. "It's everywhere."
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