lithium-ion batteries

The lithium-ion battery business is taking off, and the battery recycling business is close behind. Financiers are pouring over a billion dollars into recycling companies like Redwood Materials, Ascend Elements, and Li-Cycle. But success depends on a steady supply of used batteries, and with batteries lasting longer than expected — and the battery market still in its infancy — there just aren’t enough dying batteries to go around.  As a result, a significant portion of recyclers’ feedstock is coming from manufacturer scrap, i.e. the waste that companies like SK On and Panasonic don’t turn into cells at the factory. But these battery makers are incentivized to minimize waste, which raises big questions about whether recyclers will be able to get enough used batteries to sustainably feed their operations. So which technologies and business models will succeed in this chapter of the battery industry? In this episode, Shayle talks to Dan Steingart, chair of the earth and environmental engineering department at Columbia University. (Steingart’s lab gets funding from battery manufacturer Northvolt.) Shayle and Dan cover topics like: The steps in nickel-manganese-cobalt battery recycling and what Dan calls “zombie lithium” The differences between pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy Dan’s bet on solvent extraction as an under-appreciated technology Redwood Materials’ focus on winning the feedstock battle Ascend Elements’ hydro-to-cathode technology Li-Cycle’s focus on making inputs for cathode manufacturers How these recyclers want to compete downstream by producing cathode precursor and cathode material  Why Dan is surprisingly bearish on direct recycling for lithium-iron-phosphate Recommended Resources: Nature Sustainability: Examining different recycling processes for lithium-ion batteries Latitude Media: What’s so hard about building a circular battery economy? Are growing concerns over AI’s power demand justified? Join us for our upcoming Transition-AI event featuring three experts with a range of views on how to address the energy needs of hyperscale computing, driven by artificial intelligence. Don’t miss this live, virtual event on May 8.

Are you a utility or climatetech startup looking to understand how artificial intelligence will shape your company? Come to our one-day event, Transition-AI: Boston, on June 15. Our listeners get a 20% discount with the code PSPODS20. On the Catalyst with Shayle Kann podcast this week: The good news: the U.S. has about 47 days’ worth of energy stored up for later use. The bad news? Virtually all of it is in the form of fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas. By comparison, if you add up all the energy stored in batteries, pumped hydropower and other zero-carbon storage, it adds up to just a few seconds’ worth. This small scale of low-carbon energy storage is a big problem. We’re building out intermittent renewables fast, and we need enough energy storage to back up wind when turbines slow down and solar when the sun isn’t shining.  But there are technologies that could get us there. In this episode, Shayle talks to his colleague Andy Lubershane, who is a partner and head of research at Energy Impact Partners. Andy recently wrote a piece called Four ways to store sunlight, which compares lithium-ion batteries, heat storage, ion-air batteries, and hydrogen. Andy and Shayle cover topics like: The storage trifecta: short duration, diurnal, and multi-day seasonal Andy’s guess at how low the price of lithium-ion batteries could go Why we would use heat storage and hydrogen, despite their low round-trip efficiencies Why molten-salt heat storage didn’t take off High hopes for iron-air batteries’ low costs Blending hydrogen into gas turbines How all these technologies are competing against carbon capture and storage (CCS) Recommended Resources: Andy Lubershane: Four ways to store sunlight Form Energy: Enabling a True 24/7 Carbon-Free Resource Portfolio for Great River Energy with Multi-Day Storage Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. Support for Catalyst comes from Climate Positive, a podcast by HASI, that features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers who are at the forefront of the transition to a sustainable economy. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Catalyst is supported by Scale Microgrids, the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes it easy. Learn more: scalemicrogrids.com.

Siddharth Kara (@siddharthkara) is a British Academy Global Professor, an Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at Nottingham University, a Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.

What We Discuss with Siddharth Kara:

• Cobalt is an essential component of every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today — the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles.
• About 75 percent of the world's supply of cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, often by peasants and children in subhuman conditions who suffer and often die for their trouble.
• The environmental impact of cobalt extraction, including deforestation and pollution, that leaves behind toxic pits and wasteland unfit for sustaining life.
• The complex web of actors involved in the exploitation of Congo's mineral resources, including smugglers, traders, and corrupt government officials.
• As consumers, what can we do to raise awareness and jolt ourselves out of the apathy that allows these atrocities to continue in our names while holding the multinational interests that perpetrate them accountable?
• And much more...

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