Lithium batteries have changed our lives, but it is not the future of electric cars

In today's era, lithium-ion batteries have completely changed our lives. From mobile phones to laptops and electric cars, lithium-ion batteries are everywhere. Just like this year’s Nobel Prize award speech, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the inventor of the lithium battery. Although lithium batteries have made a great contribution to human beings getting rid of the dependence on fossil fuels and making the automobile industry move towards electrification, as people's demand for lithium batteries increases, the bottleneck of lithium battery technology has gradually been exposed. Even John Goodenough, one of the inventors of lithium batteries, is not optimistic about the future of lithium batteries. ▲ The shortcoming of the single-cell lithium battery in the battery pack of electric vehicles is still the energy density. According to the current technical conditions, the energy density of automobile fuel is 10 times that of lithium batteries under the same conditions. That is to say, to achieve the same energy as the 60-liter fuel tank of a fuel vehicle, approximately 400 kilograms of lithium batteries are needed. This is also an important reason why all-electric airplanes have been delayed since the batteries take up more space in the airplane. Large airplanes like the Boeing 737 require batteries even heavier than the fuselage, which is obviously unrealistic. If you want to increase the energy density of lithium batteries, one of the costs is to reduce the cycle life. The life of the lithium battery of a general mobile phone is about 3 years, and it can be charged/discharged more than 500 times, but this life will reduce the cost-effectiveness of electric vehicles. The electrode material needs to be changed to extend the life. At present, some electric vehicles are beginning to have longer life of lithium iron phosphate batteries. It is reported that BYD will launch electric vehicles using lithium iron phosphate batteries next year, with a lifespan of 8 years and 1.2 million kilometers, but the disadvantage of this type of battery is its low energy density. Poor performance in low temperature environment and high cost. In addition, with the widespread use of lithium batteries, the output of lithium carbonate may soon be unable to meet the ever-expanding market demand. According to the forecast of market research agency Adroit Market Research, lithium consumption will quadruple by 2025, and the global lithium battery market is estimated to exceed 100 billion US dollars. Some organizations have calculated and found that only considering electric vehicles, one-third of the lithium on the land will be consumed by 2050, and the lithium resources on the land will be completely exhausted by 2080. Although there are 230 billion tons of lithium reserves in the ocean, there is currently no large-scale commercial extraction technology. The shortage of lithium resources will cause the cost of lithium batteries to rise, and eventually become another kind of 'oil.' There was a view that the shift from petroleum to lithium batteries in the automotive industry was just a change from a limited resource to another limited resource. However, the difference between lithium batteries and petroleum is that lithium can be recycled and reused, and it is said that it can achieve a recycling rate of up to 95%. If the lithium metal can be efficiently recycled, it can effectively alleviate the problem of lithium resource shortage, but the current recycling rate of lithium batteries is not high, and the cost of recycling and reuse is not low, even higher than mining lithium ore. The traditional impression that electric vehicles are more environmentally friendly than fuel vehicles is actually not very accurate. It is true that the carbon emissions of consumers in the process of driving electric vehicles are indeed much lower than that of fuel vehicles, but this does not mean that electric vehicles are more environmentally friendly. Electric vehicles only move pollution to the production stage. Studies have shown that if the production of electric vehicle batteries is considered, the carbon emissions produced by manufacturing an electric vehicle are 15% to 70% higher than that of a fuel vehicle. And this has not yet calculated the environmental pollution caused by lithium mining and improper recycling of lithium batteries. For example, in some areas of Chile, 65% of water is used for lithium production, which can easily pollute water resources. Obviously, there are still many shortcomings in current lithium batteries, and there has not been much breakthrough in commercially available battery technology in the past 20 years, but the surge in market demand has forced humans to find better battery solutions as soon as possible. In 2018, it was predicted that 'we are only 10 years away from the lithium electronic battery revolution.' In fact, scientists have not stopped developing new battery technologies. The battery laboratory under IBM Research is developing materials extracted from seawater to make cobalt-free electric vehicles. The battery technology, this technology can be charged to 80% in 5 minutes, and is superior to current lithium batteries in terms of cost and energy density. At present, Mercedes-Benz, Japanese battery electrolyte supplier Central Glass and other manufacturers have reached cooperation with IBM to promote the commercial use of this battery technology, but it is still unknown when it will be launched on the market. The future of lithium batteries will not necessarily be replaced by new materials, and even greater breakthroughs may be made. The 97-year-old 'father of lithium-ion batteries' John Goodenough is still involved in the research and development of all-solid-state batteries, hoping to make lithium batteries reach new heights, and has achieved some research results. In any case, the revolution of lithium batteries may not be far away from us. Disclaimer: Some pictures and content of articles published on this site are from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact to delete. Previous: Matters needing attention when charging and using lithium batteries for electric vehicles