Which way? Metals

vanzandt said:
Long read, but this is interesting af:

How to make lithium-ion batteries invincible

News Release 23-Jun-2021
Berkeley Lab researchers are developing a family of cathode materials that have all of the advantages of conventional lithium batteries but without the supply constraints

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Research News



IMAGE: Jingyang Wang holds up a ceramic palette sample prepared for the DRX research program co-led by Gerbrand Ceder and Guoying Chen at Berkeley Lab. view more

In our future electrified world, the demand for battery storage is projected to be enormous, reaching to upwards of 2 to 10 terawatt-hours (TWh) of annual battery production by 2030, from less than 0.5 TWh today. However, concerns are growing as to whether key raw materials will be adequate to meet this future demand. The lithium-ion battery - the dominant technology for the foreseeable future - has a component made of cobalt and nickel, and those two metals face severe supply constraints on the global market.

Now, after several years of research led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), scientists have made significant progress in developing battery cathodes using a new class of materials that provide batteries with the same if not higher energy density than conventional lithium-ion batteries but can be made of inexpensive and abundant metals. Known as DRX, which stands for disordered rocksalts with excess lithium, this novel family of materials was invented less than 10 years ago and allows cathodes to be made without nickel or cobalt.

"The classic lithium-ion battery has served us well, but as we consider future demands for energy storage, its reliance on certain critical minerals exposes us not only to supply-chain risks, but also environmental and social issues," said Ravi Prasher, Berkeley Lab's Associate Lab Director for Energy Technologies. "With DRX materials, this offers lithium batteries the potential to be the foundation for sustainable battery technologies for the future."

The cathode is one of the two electrodes in a battery and accounts for more than one-third of the cost of a battery. Currently the cathode in lithium-ion batteries uses a class of materials known as NMC, with nickel, manganese, and cobalt as the key ingredients.

"I've done cathode research for over 20 years, looking for new materials, and DRX is the best new material I've ever seen by far," said Berkeley Lab battery scientist Gerbrand Ceder, who is co-leading the research. "With the current NMC class, which is restricted to just nickel, cobalt, and an inactive component made of manganese, the classic lithium-ion battery is at the end of its performance curve unless you transfer to new cathode materials, and that's what the DRX program offers. DRX materials have enormous compositional flexibility - and this is very powerful because not only can you use all kinds of abundant metals in a DRX cathode, but you can also use any type of metal to fix any problem that might come up during the early stages of designing new batteries. That's why we're so excited."

Cobalt and nickel supply-chain risks

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has made it a priority to find ways to reduce or eliminate the use of cobalt in batteries. "The battery industry is facing an enormous resource crunch," said Ceder. "Even at 2 TWh, the lower range of global demand projections, that would consume almost all of today's nickel production, and with cobalt we're not even close. Cobalt production today is only about 150 kilotons, and 2 TWh of battery power would require 2,000 kilotons of nickel and cobalt in some combination."

What's more, over two-thirds of the world's nickel production is currently used to make stainless steel. And more than half of the world's production of cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, with Russia, Australia, the Philippines, and Cuba rounding out the top five producers of cobalt.

In contrast, DRX cathodes can use just about any metal in place of nickel and cobalt. Scientists at Berkeley Lab have focused on using manganese and titanium, which are both more abundant and lower cost than nickel and cobalt.

"Manganese oxide and titanium oxide cost less than $1 per kilogram whereas cobalt costs about $45 per kilogram and nickel about $18," said Ceder. "With DRX you have the potential to make very inexpensive energy storage. At that point lithium-ion becomes unbeatable and can be used everywhere - for vehicles, the grid - and we can truly make energy storage abundant and inexpensive."

Ordered vs. disordered

Ceder and his team developed DRX materials in 2014. In batteries, the number and speed of lithium ions able to travel into the cathode translates into how much energy and power the battery has. In conventional cathodes, lithium ions travel through the cathode material along well-defined pathways and arrange themselves between the transition metal atoms (usually cobalt and nickel) in neat, orderly layers.

What Ceder's group discovered was that a cathode with a disordered atomic structure could hold more lithium - which means more energy - while allowing for a wider range of elements to serve as the transition metal. They also learned that within that chaos, lithium ions can easily hop around.

In 2018, the Vehicle Technologies Office in DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy provided funding for Berkeley Lab to take a "deep dive" into DRX materials. In collaboration with scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and UC Santa Barbara, Berkeley Lab teams led by Ceder and Guoying Chen have made tremendous progress in optimizing DRX cathodes in lithium-ion batteries.

For example, the charge rate - or how fast the battery can charge - of these materials was initially very low, and its stability was also poor. The research team has found ways to address both of these issues through modeling and experimentation. Studies on using fluorination to improve stability have been published in Advanced Functional Materials and Advanced Energy Materials; research on how to enable a high charging rate was recently published in Nature Energy.

Since DRX can be made with many different elements, the researchers have also been working on which element would be best to use, hitting the sweet spot of being abundant, inexpensive, and providing good performance. "DRX has now been synthesized with almost the whole periodic table," Ceder said.

"This is science at its best - fundamental discoveries that will serve as the bedrock of systems in future homes, vehicles, and grids," said Noel Bakhtian, director of Berkeley Lab's Energy Storage Center. "What has made Berkeley Lab so successful in battery innovation for decades now is our combination of breadth and depth of expertise - from fundamental discovery to characterization, synthesis, and manufacturing, as well as energy markets and policy research. Collaboration is key - we partner with industry and beyond to solve real-world problems, which in turn helps galvanize the world-leading science we do at the Lab."

Fast progress

New battery materials have traditionally taken 15 to 20 years to commercialize; Ceder believes progress on DRX materials can be accelerated with a larger team. "We've made great progress in the last three years with the deep dive," Ceder said. "We've come to the conclusion that we're ready for a bigger team, so we can involve people with a more diverse set of skills to really refine this."

An expanded research team could move quickly to address the remaining issues, including improving the cycle life (or the number of times the battery can be recharged and discharged over its lifetime) and optimizing the electrolyte, the chemical medium that allows the flow of electrical charge between the cathode and anode. Since being developed in Ceder's lab, groups in Europe and Japan have also launched large DRX research programs.

"Advances in battery technologies and energy storage will require continued breakthroughs in the fundamental science of materials," said Jeff Neaton, Berkeley Lab's Associate Lab Director for Energy Sciences. "Berkeley Lab's expertise, unique facilities, and capabilities in advanced imaging, computation, and synthesis allow us to study materials at the scale of atoms and electrons. We are well poised to accelerate the development of promising materials like DRX for clean energy."
More...
Be interesting what comes of it.
Wiki mentions them and they are involved with uranium.
Further links to the company could be BKY.AX and NYSE: BKLRF
Reading Wiki makes me guess the above is a continuation of Berkeley Labs experimenting with materials, but from my understanding, the future of batteries will be diverse methods and materials to fit multiple applications, ie, not one silver bullet.
 
themickey said:
Be interesting what comes of it.
Wiki mentions them and they are involved with uranium.
Further links to the company could be BKY.AX and NYSE: BKLRF
Reading Wiki makes me guess the above is a continuation of Berkeley Labs experimenting with materials, but from my understanding, the future of batteries will be diverse methods and materials to fit multiple applications, ie, not one silver bullet.
More...

Physic laws cannot be broken. That is why they are laws. We are going so backwards with this battery tech, trying to do the impossible. We need a new way to generate power straight up. None of this "coaxing every last drop of water from the stone").
 
themickey said:
Like very mini nuclear reactors?
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On that subject, I wish we'd spend as much effort finding solutions to nuclear waste that doesn't just involve digging a hole and dumping it in, or throwing barrels down in the deep blue sea. A solution to waste brings nuclear back to the forefront of energy production, a good thing.
 
themickey said:
Be interesting what comes of it.
Wiki mentions them and they are involved with uranium.
Further links to the company could be BKY.AX and NYSE: BKLRF
Reading Wiki makes me guess the above is a continuation of Berkeley Labs experimenting with materials, but from my understanding, the future of batteries will be diverse methods and materials to fit multiple applications, ie, not one silver bullet.
More...
This is interesting too Mick:



China frictions steer electric automakers away from rare earth magnets
Eric Onstad
7 minute read

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LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - As tensions mount between China and the United States, automakers in the West are trying to reduce their reliance on a key driver of the electric vehicle revolution - permanent magnets, sometimes smaller than a pack of cards, that power electric engines.

Most are made of rare earth metals from China.

The metals in the magnets are actually abundant, but can be dirty and difficult to produce. China has grown to dominate production, and with demand for the magnets on the rise for all forms of renewable energy, analysts say a genuine shortage may lie ahead.

Some auto firms have been looking to replace rare earths for years. Now manufacturers amounting to nearly half global sales say they are limiting their use, a Reuters analysis found.

Automakers in the West say they are concerned not just about securing supply, but also by huge price swings, and environmental damage in the supply chain.

This means managing the risk that scrapping the metals could shorten the distance a vehicle can travel between charges. Without a solution to that, the range anxiety that has long hampered the industry would increase, so access to the metals may become a competitive edge.

Rare earth magnets, mostly made of neodymium , are widely seen as the most efficient way to power electric vehicles (EVs). China controls 90% of their supply.

Prices of neodymium oxide more than doubled during a nine-month rally last year and are still up 90%; the U.S. Department of Commerce said in June it is considering an investigation into the national security impact of neodymium magnet imports.

Companies trying to cut their use include Japan's third-largest carmaker Nissan Motor Co (7201.T), which told Reuters it is scrapping rare earths from the engine of its new Ariya model.

Germany's BMW AG (BMWG.DE) did the same for its iX3 electric SUV this year, and the world's two biggest automakers Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) of Japan and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) of Germany have told Reuters they are also cutting back on the minerals. (For a Factbox, see read more )

Rare earths are critical for the electronics, defence and renewable energy industries. Because some can generate a constant magnetic force, the magnets they make are known as permanent magnets.

Electric cars with these require less battery power than those with ordinary magnets, so vehicles can go longer distances before recharging. They were the no-brainer choice for EV motors until about 2010 when China threatened to cut rare earth supply during a dispute with Japan. Prices boomed.

Now, supply concerns are opening a divide between Chinese EV producers and their Western rivals.

While automakers in the West are cutting down, the Chinese are still churning out vehicles using the permanent magnets. A Chinese rare earths industry official told Reuters that if geopolitical risks are set aside, China's capacity can "fully meet the needs of the world's automotive industry."

Altogether, based on sales data from JATO Dynamics, manufacturers accounting for 46% of total light vehicle sales in 2020 have said they have scrapped, plan to eliminate, or are scaling down rare earths in electric vehicles.

And new ventures are springing up to develop electric motors without the metals, or to boost recycling of the magnets used in existing vehicles.

"Companies that spend tens or hundreds of millions developing a family of products... they don't want to put all their eggs in one basket - that's the Chinese basket," said Murray Edington, who runs the Electrified Powertrain department at British consultancy Drive System Design. "They want to develop alternatives."

BMW says it has redesigned its EV technology to make up for a lack of rare earths; Renault SA (RENA.PA) has slotted its rare-earth-free Zoe model into a growing niche of small urban cars that do not need extended driving ranges.

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), the U.S. EV giant whose $621 billion market value is just below that of the top five automakers combined - is opting for both types of motors.

"You're pulling your hair deciding whether you think supplies will be viable in the future and at what price," said Ryan Castilloux of Canada-based consultancy Adamas Intelligence.

His consultancy expects global consumption of rare earths for magnets to climb to $15.7 billion by 2030, nearly four times this year's value.

Adamas%20Intelligence%20NdFeB%20alloy%20Balance%20Graphic.png


EVS AND WIND TURBINES

Neodymium is a mighty metal. The neodymium magnets in a typical EV weigh up to 3kg (6 lb), but even at 1/12th of that weight, a neodymium magnet can support steel as heavy as prizefighter Tyson Fury, and will have about 18 times more magnetic energy than the standard variety, British magnet company Bunting told Reuters.

Even though the pandemic has dented auto sales, demand for these magnets in electric vehicles shot up by 35% last year alone to 6,600 tonnes, Adamas Intelligence says.

The permanent magnets in hybrid and EV motors cost more than $300 per vehicle or up to half the cost of the motor, analysts say.

Analysts at investment bank UBS expect electric models to make up half of global new car sales by 2030, up from only 4% last year. The magnets are also in demand for wind turbines, global installations of which jumped 53% last year, according to the industry trade group.

Over the past two decades, Western countries largely withdrew from producing rare earth metals, which involves complex processing and often noxious byproducts. Today, China's dominance runs through the entire production chain.

"The upstream rare earth supply chain, including mining and processing, is definitely a big concern, but when it comes to actual RE magnet production, China has an even tighter grip," said David Merriman at Roskill, a critical materials consultancy in London.

NOT ENOUGH

For many EV drivers, range anxiety may not be an issue.

"Most people are driving less than 100 miles a day, so for that you can have a less efficient motor," said researcher Jürgen Gassmann at Fraunhofer IWKS in Germany.

Even so, automakers in the West have adopted a range of strategies. Some, like Toyota, still use permanent magnets but have trimmed use of rare earths, developing a magnet that needs 20%-50% less neodymium.

Others, like BMW, have undertaken major redesigns: The German carmaker told Reuters it overhauled its drive unit to combine motor, electronics and transmission in a single housing, cutting down on space and weight.

"Our goal for the future is to avoid rare earths as much as possible and to become independent of possible cost, availability and - of course - sustainability risks," said Patrick Hudde, BMW's vice president of raw material management.

Tesla started in 2019 to combine engine types. Its S and X models have two motors: one with rare earth magnets, one without. The induction motor provides more power, while the one with permanent magnets is more efficient, Tesla said: Including a rare earth motor boosted the models' driving range by 10%. Volkswagen also uses both types of motors on its new ID.4 crossover SUV, it said.

The use of non-rare-earth electric motors is set to jump nearly eightfold by 2030, according to Claudio Vittori, senior analyst of e-mobility at data analytics company IHS Markit. But he said permanent magnet motors will still dominate, mainly because of their power and efficiency.

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If the forecasts are correct, it's not certain that even these tweaks can cool the market.

"I think we need these innovations to help balance the really strong demand growth that we're looking at," Castilloux says. "There's almost no scenario where supply will be enough."
 
Not really metals, but BHP is one of the largest global metals mining companies....
https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-...-rebound-global-markets-rally-20210721-p58bhy

BHP Group ponders exit from oil and gas
BHP Group is considering getting out of oil and gas in a multibillion-dollar exit that would accelerate its retreat from fossil fuels, according to people familiar with the matter.

The world’s biggest miner is reviewing its petroleum business and considering options including a trade sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the talks are private.

The business, which is forecast to earn more than $US2 billion this year, could be worth an estimated $US15 billion or more, one of the people said.

BHP’s energy assets make it an outlier among the world’s biggest miners -- rival Anglo American Plc has already exited thermal coal under investor pressure and BHP is trying to follow suit.

The company has long said the oil business was one of its strategic pillars and argued that it will make money for at least another decade. But as the world tries to shift away from fossil fuels, BHP wants to avoid getting stuck with assets that more become more difficult to sell, the people said.

The deliberations are still at an early stage and no final decision has been made, the people said. A spokesman for BHP declined to comment.

Bloomberg
 
themickey said:
Like very mini nuclear reactors?
More...

No. We need the Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor.

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We could have been close to that by now if rather than spending all that money on useless "green energy" that will simply be unable to eliminate fossil fuel consumption, we had spent it to develop Mr. Fusion.
 
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