In the last year, the price of lithium has increased by more than four times. The reason is that electric cars cannot be made without this metal lighter than wood. Such cards run on special lithium batteries that can be charged again and again.
Apart from cars, lithium batteries are also used in phones and laptops, and in the coming times, there are plans to use them to store green energy i.e. sustainable energy.
Many countries are now trying to leave petrol and diesel and move towards green energy. That is, the use of lithium batteries will increase in the future.
India is also included in those countries. India is largely dependent on fossil fuels for its energy needs and the government plans to adopt green energy in the coming times. India China is a big business partner, but there is also tension between the two. In such a situation, the equation of relations with China, the world's largest producer of lithium batteries, can affect India's demand for lithium batteries.
But it is also a matter of concern that the reserves of lithium in the world are limited. In 2021, investment bank UBS released a report according to which the current reserves of lithium could be exhausted by 2025.
So this week in the world, the question is, do we have enough lithium to meet our growing needs of the future?
Why is battery important?
Susan Babinic is the Program Lead at Argonne National Laboratory in the US. She works on ways to store electric energy in chemicals.
She says, "Battery is a kind of device to store energy. There are many types of energy like thermal, gravitational, kinetic. Apart from these, there is another type of energy which we call chemical energy. Battery energy is called chemical energy. can be stored as
She says that the world's first battery was made about two hundred years ago. It had copper wires on one side and zinc on the other. Between them was salty water. It could not store much charge. After this, the first lead-acid battery was made in 1860. However, they could be used in cars only after decades.
She says, "These batteries were able to store charge and operate in low temperatures. They were used to help start the car in winter. But lead-acid batteries were bigger and heavier in size. Henry Ford The electric car made a hundred years ago used a lead-acid battery, but it was large and could not hold as much charge as needed.
The turning point in battery history came in the 1980s when lithium-ion batteries began to be manufactured for laptops and mobile phones. Compared to earlier batteries, they weighed less and were able to store more charge.
She explains, "Scientists wanted to further improve the lithium-ion battery used in consumer electronics so that it could be used in electric cars. This indeed required many changes, but this gave hope that the electric cars are possible."
In simple terms, a typical battery has a metal cathode on one side and a graphite anode on the other. Between them is a chemical called electrolyte. While charging the battery, the metal ions move from the cathode to the anode and when a device is connected, they flow in the opposite direction.
Susan explains, "In the case of a lithium-ion battery, it is the metal lithium whose ions float in the electrolyte and move from side to side. And when the ions move inside the battery, the electrons in the circuit outside also move in the same direction." float in. That's how electricity or energy is created."
Susan says that not every battery needs to use only lithium. But lithium ions are very small and due to this, they do not affect the cathode.
She says, "The smaller the size of the ions coming towards the cathode, the less change in its density. This will affect the life of the battery. Due to the small size, the lithium ions move faster and the cathode has more to do." Do not harm. But if sodium or calcium is used, the battery life will be shorter due to the larger ion size."
That is, lithium is very important to meet the needs of green energy in the future. And if so, then the question is whether it is available in sufficient quantity.
According to a 2021 report, the current reserves of lithium in the world could be exhausted in the next three years. Its mining is increasing rapidly and in the coming time, we will have to find more sources or alternatives for it.
Chile's Salt Flats
Chile has the largest reserves of lithium in the world. Apart from this, it is also mined in Argentina, Bolivia, Australia.
Our second expert is Dr. Thea Riofrancos, an associate professor of political science at Providence College, Rhode Island.
She says that the Atacama, near the Chilean border with Bolivia and Argentina, contains huge prehistoric lakes that have now dried up. Their saltwater has now turned into a sheet of salt. These are called salt flats. This land, which looks white due to salt, has large deposits of lithium.
According to him, "Saltwater is present in the ground several meters below the salt layer. It contains large amounts of lithium particles. This saltwater is extracted through drilling and it is dispersed in large ponds built nearby Lithium concentrate is prepared when water is dried by evaporation. It is then refined and exported."
These fields of Lithium in Chile attract companies, but there are different problems associated with its mining.
The water is already scarce here, says Thea Riofrancos. The tribal communities who have lived here for thousands of years have depended on these limited water sources for their needs. Due to the mining of lithium, the water level has gone down here and these communities have to get water. Now you have to work harder than ever before."
On the one hand, people living around the Salt Flats are opposing the mining of lithium, and on the other, politicians are embroiled in a debate about who should get the profits from mining.
According to him, "Chile's left-wing centrists and left-wing leaders are calling for the nationalization of the lithium business. They say that mining should be controlled by the government, not by the companies so that its benefits can be passed on to the citizens. Want more foreign investment in mining and are ready to change policies.
This type of debate is common in any country, but in the case of Chile, the matter is different. That is because the world is now moving towards green energy and lithium is becoming very important.
She says, “Chile is in fact at the center of our journey towards sustainable energy. It also has to deal with the environmental challenges arising out of mining.
The debate on this topic can be continued, but let's talk about China, which is the world's largest consumer market.
China's dominance in the lithium market
China has set a target of 40 percent electric cars by 2030. Four out of every 10 lithium batteries used worldwide are used in China. China is ahead of others in its production as well. China accounts for 77 percent of the world's total production of lithium batteries.
Shirley Mang is a professor at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. She explains why a large part of the lithium market is under China's control.
She says, "China had made a long-term plan from the year 2001. In its 10th five-year plan, it had considered sustainable energy as its main priority. From 2002, it started investing in plans to make electric cars. Two decades ago, a strategy was made for this.
China not only built factories but also ensured that there was no shortage of raw materials. For this, he invested in the mining of lithium in Australia and South America.
At the 26th Climate Summit held in Glasgow in November-December 2021, more than 40 countries agreed to stop selling petrol and diesel cars by 2040. But due to this arrangement of China, the supply of lithium to other countries is being affected. There is also a reason that batteries made in China are being preferred in the global market.
Shirley Mang says, “I remember in 2010-11 we used to say that Japan's lithium batteries are better than China in terms of quality. But since 2015-16, we are getting a much better quality of batteries made in China. . They can compete with batteries made in South Korea or Japan."
The result of China's investment was that other companies including Tesla and Apple set up their factories in China.
She says, “We can say about China that there is a production as well as a consumer, but in the case of America it cannot be said. Cars are being produced here but the batteries for them are being imported from China. Huh."
This is currently the biggest challenge for the electric car industry of America and other countries.
One solution for this could be that other countries can recycle the batteries imported from China. But so far it has not been possible to do so.
According to Shirley Mung, "As of now, the struggle for raw materials is not as intense yet. But by 2030, there will be battery factories in North America and Europe as well. You have to arrange the raw materials now, Or have to find an alternative."
In 2012, about one lakh 30 thousand electric cars were sold worldwide. By 2020, this figure increased to 30 lakhs and in 2021 to 66 lakhs.
Experts say that by the year 2035, half the vehicles on the world's roads will be electric cars and in the coming time, this market will be more than 100 billion dollars. Then what will be the options for the countries who want to be a part of this race?
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