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Time line: You will have 2 weeks to complete the on-line discussion as a team. Use this blog to capture your thoughts, perspectives, ideas, and revisions as you work together on this problem. This activity is discussion-based, meaning you will participate through a collaborative exchange and critique of each other’s ideas and work. The goal is to challenge and support one another as a team to tap your collective resources and experiences to dig more deeply into the issue(s) raised in the scenario. Since the idea is that everyone in the discussion will refine his/her ideas through the discussion that develops, you should try to respond well before the activity ends so that the discussion has time to mature. It is important to make your initial posts and subsequent responses in a timely manner. You are expected to make multiple posts during each stage of this on-going discussion. The timeline below suggests how to pace your discussion. This is just a suggestion. Feel free to pace the discussion as you see fit.
Tuesday Week 1 Initial Posts: All participants post initial responses to these instructions (see below) and the scenario.
Thursday Week 1 Response Posts: Participants respond by tying together information and perspectives on important points and possible approaches. Participants identify gaps in information and seek to fill those gaps.
Tuesday Week 2 Refine Posts: Participants work toward agreement on what is most important, determine what they still need to find out, & evaluate one or more approaches from the previous week’s discussion.
Thursday Week 2 Polish Final Posts: Participants come to an agreement on what is most important, and propose one or more approaches to address the issue/s.
Discussion Instructions
Imagine that you are a team of engineers working together for a company or organization to address the issue raised in the scenario. Discuss what your team would need to take into consideration to begin to address the issue. You do not need to suggest specific technical solutions, but identify the most important factors and suggest one or more viable approaches.
Suggestions for discussion topics
• Identify the primary and secondary problems raised in the scenario.
• Who are the major stakeholders and what are their perspectives?
• What outside resources (people, literature/references, and technologies) could be engaged in developing viable approaches?
• Identify related contemporary issues.
• Brainstorm a number of feasible approaches to address the issue.
• Consider the following contexts: economic, environmental, cultural/societal, and global. What impacts would the approaches you brainstormed have on these contexts?
• Come to agreement on one or more viable approaches and state the rationale.
Lithium mining for lithium-ion electrical vehicle batteries
The US government is investing heavily in sustainable resource research and development in order to decrease national oil consumption, and automotive industries around the world are competing in a global race for “sustainable mobility”. There were about 52 million total vehicles produced in the world in 2009, and replacing a significant amount of them with highly electrified vehicles poses a major challenge. The state of California is targeting 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) on its streets by 2020. By that same date, Nissan forecasts that EVs will become 10% of all global sales.
Battery technology is currently the major bottleneck in EV design. In 2009, President Obama announced $2.4 billion in grants to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of next generation batteries and EVs. Lithium-ion batteries are the first choice for the emerging EV generation, (the Chevy Volt, the Volvo C30, the Nissan Leaf), because they feature high power density, manageable operating temperatures, and are relatively easy to recharge on the grid.
In spite of its potential, lithium may not be the answer to the EV battery challenge. Lithium, which is recovered from lithium carbonate (Li2CO3), is not an unlimited resource. Lithium-based batteries are already used in almost all portable computers, cell phones and small appliances. Utility-scale lithium-based energy storage devices are in the works for smart grid applications, such as balancing energy supply-demand fluctuations. Lithium is also extensively used in a number of processes we take for granted: the manufacturing of glass, grits, greases and aluminum, among others. This makes accurate estimations of future demand in relation to resource availability almost impossible.
According to Meridian International Research, an independent renewable-energy think tank, there is insufficient recoverable lithium in the earth's crust to sustain electric vehicle manufacture based on Li-ion batteries in the volumes required by the mass market. Lithium depletion rates would exceed current oil depletion rates, potentially switching dependency from one diminishing resource to another. The United States Geological Survey reports that the Salar de Uyuni salt pans of Bolivia contain the largest untapped reserve of lithium in the world – an estimated 5.4 million metric tons or almost 50% of the global lithium reserve base. Other estimates put the Bolivian resource as high as 9 million metric tons. Bolivian president, Evo Morales, has consistently rejected bids by Mitsubishi and Toyota to mine lithium in his country and has announced plans to develop a state-controlled lithium mining operation. Prices of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) have more than doubled since 2004. Lithium batteries are costly, too; battery packs for vehicles cost upwards of $20,000 alone, driving up the overall cost.
Lithium CAN be recycled, but there is little existing infrastructure. In 2009, a California company, Toxco Waste Management, received $9.5 million in grants from the US Department of Energy to help build the first US-based facility for recycling lithium batteries in anticipation of demand.
How much lithium is needed to power an electric vehicle?
Energy requirements………………………..16 kilowatt hours (specified for Chevy Volt)
Lithium estimates per kWh……………….0.431 kg (US Department of Transportation estimate)
Total lithium for one Chevy Volt……….6.86 kg
Total Li2CO3 for one Chevy Volt ......... 36.5 kg
Total Li2CO3 one million PHEVs ..........36,500 metric tons
Sources
Lithium Dreams: Can Bolivia Become the Saudi Arabia of the Electric-Car Era? (March 22, 2010). The New Yorker.
Lithium Largesse? (August 2009). American Ceramic Society Bulletin.
US Department of Energy, Press Release. (August 5, 2009)
Bolivia’s Lithium Mining Dilemma. (September 8, 2008) BBC News.
The Trouble with Lithium: Implications of Future PHEV Production for Lithium Demand. (2007). Meridian International Research.
As a person who cares about the environment and the homes of other people, my initial reaction to the issue is to not go into Bolivia and disrupt the lives of those who live of the land. There are other sources of lithium in other parts of the world that have already been mined, and although these resources are not nearly as substantial, they still provide some lithium for consumers to use.
ReplyDeleteAs a consumer and future engineer, I am looking for progress and advancement in what we already use, including the use of electric vehicles (EV) in place of gasoline combustion vehicles. As stated in the blog article, the fact that it is almost impossible to predict the future of mining lithium makes it very difficult to determine whether or not this is a viable source that can be sustained in the future. My first solution to the problem is to not try to start mining for lithium in Bolivia. As stated by the independent research firm, there isn’t enough lithium in the earth’s crust to sustain mass market production and lithium will deplete faster that oil anyway. The potential prices of having to pay the Bolivian government to mine there (which will be quite substantial since they already refuse to have anyone mining there but themselves), establishing mining headquarters, and the energy that is going to be needed to extract the lithium from the ground may outweigh the price of having only 10% of the market using electric vehicles. If the resource will run out soon, the price of paying to mine may not be worth it in only a few short years.
My second solution would be one that prevents only some companies (such as Mitsubishi) from being to access the lithium mines, while others cannot. In order to do this, either our government or a collection of automakers will have to pool together a very large sum of money to present to the Bolivian government, which may be able to get them only slight access. The U.S. government or companies would then have to find the location that will have the least amount of impact on the environment and indigenous people and if the lithium is still worth it, begin mining there. Once that area has been depleted, the land is to be fixed to its original specifications, as determined by the Bolivian government. Of course, this option is only possible if the Bolivian president one day allows North Americans to mine there at some point and that is the first thing that must be done if EVs are going to be part of the mass market.
My gut reaction is that we should avoid lithium-ion batteries for cars and utility applications as a general solution for power storage.
ReplyDeleteTransportation consumes a huge amount of energy and that will only increase in the future. While lithium batteries may be fine for consumer electronics, it just doesn't look like a reasonable solution for transportation.
Not only that, but Bolivia has about half of the lithium in the world. It's never a good thing to have one country with all the resources. What we need is some more decentralized. That's one of the benefits of depending less on oil- to get out of politically unstable areas like the middle east.
Beyond depending on Bolivia economically, it would inevitably tarnish the reputation of the US if we got tangled up in South American. If that's the go to country for Lithium and we start having a serious presence down there, there's bound to be some squabble and all of the sudden we're America: World Police all over again when we try to fix it.
I'm a huge fan of the recycling program, though. The electronics industry would benefit and environmentalists are happy because we don't have to mine as much.
As a solution to the transportation problem I'm in favor of seeing hydrogen technology expand. There are less environmentally-unfriendly metals associated with it.
From an engineering ethics perspective, this dilemma is quite complex. There are so many parties involved that you can't please all the stakeholders. There's the Bolivian government, which stands to benefit economically from Lithium mining, there's the Bolivian public, which could have a variety of stances on the issue... on the one hand they could be employed by a mining operation, but on the oher hand the environment would probably suffer from lithium mining. There's the car companies who need lithium for their current electric vehicle technology, there's the US government which could benefit economically from a mining relationship with Bolivia, there's environmentalists all over the world that are against the mining of Bolivian lithium, and a plethora of other involved parties. You can't please everyone, in fact, any solution to this issue needs to involve compromise and consensus from all sides. To "do what's right" ethically is difficult. Who or what is right? Right for the environment? Right for car companies? It's impossible to say.
ReplyDeleteDoes the current market need Bolivian lithium to survive? A dependency on South American lithium would not be good for the United States. From a corporate perspective, I don't think it matters where Chevrolet or Nissan get their lithium, but from a national perspective, dependency on one nation that has a monopoly on lithium supply is a bad idea. Alternatives need to be researched and developed. I think recycling lithium that is currently in use is a very good idea that needs to be developed. It may not be the solution, but it's a good start.
The issues that surround Bolivia and its lithium can be viewed from two main directions. These are through the eyes of natural rights and utilitarianism. Natural rights stresses that the lives of the indigenes people, whose habitat could get greatly disrupted, has the most weight when balancing the issues created by the potential mining and need of lithium. Utilitarianism looks for the solution that will benefit the global community most. Someone from this point of view would say that the need for lithium—as it is key in the development of technology and EVs—trumps the unpleasant move of the local people group.
ReplyDeleteOther issues that surround the mining in Bolivia and could affect the ability to successfully use the lithium include how the local government controls the mining, who is allowed to mine, and if other technologies are beings researched since lithium batteries are not a sustainable item. Dealing with their recycling, peacefully mining and looking for other energy storage methods are the three things that need to be focused on.
I agree that recycling lithium is a key factor in developing technology. It would not only help with a global lithium deficit but would be better for the environment as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Americans should barge into Bolivia and set up a mining operation, but helping to organize the Bolivian government so the Bolivians can profit from lithium production might be an acceptable amount of 'American interference'.
I haven't done any research as to what kinds of alternatives to lithium are out there for batteries, but it would be worth looking into. The market would undoubtedly be more stable with less dependence on lithium since the supply of lithium is so difficult to predict.
The major problem that I see is coming from the U.S. government. As stated in the original post, President Obama granted $2.4 billion for EV development and research, while only granting $9.5 million to the recycling of lithium, which is going to play a huge role in deciding how large the EV industry and get. Without the lithium to be able to store energy, there will be major problems in the future. I think the government needs to redistribute the grant money and give more to establishing more recycling facilities, not just one in California. The United States has done very little to advance the technology of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and now we are seeing the problems of storage. Uranium ore is a limited resource, although not nearly as limited as what people predict for lithium. I agree that in order to make using lithium a viable source of transportation, we are going to need to improve the recycling process. With how little is available, this may need to be the first step.
ReplyDeleteI like Katie’s idea on how the U.S. can help Bolivia in their mining, but I think instead of just helping to organize, we can become a sort of joint task force. Working with the Bolivian government, they can set regulations to the amount of lithium that can be mined in a certain amount of time to make sure that their economy is going to continue to grow in the coming years. If we are able to work beside them in the mining process, we can follow their protocol when dealing with the environment and surrounding people. Of course, this may not be a possibility at all, depending on how resistant the Bolivian government is and it is hard to know as an engineering student what the level of resistance is. It might be possible that the only way the U.S. will be able to get into Bolivia to mine is to go to war and force ourselves in there.
(This post I thought I put up on 4/1/11, not seeing it I am reposting now.)
ReplyDeleteLooking for alternative power storage solutions is a good idea as our society becomes increasingly mobile. For example, silver-oxide (silver-zinc) batteries are a better storage option than lithium batteries (http://www.zpowerbattery.com/technology/index.htm), plus research is being done to make batteries last longer and charge faster. One potential solution is found from Electric Double-Layer Capacitors, also known as supercapacitors, which have a high energy density. The downside of a number of these technologies is the cost. Thus, until their price drops and new technologies are panned out, batteries made of lithium will be needed.
Finding the balance of the United States’ involvement in the mining of lithium in Bolivia presents a challenge. I agree that the US should not jump in and save the day by taking complete charge of mining in Bolivia, but I also realize that it may be a good idea to help Bolivia mine and export lithium as that would profit their economy. However, as noted earlier in this blog, the United States’ involvement may not happen due to Bolivia’s government wanting total control.
The US Environmental Protection Agency considers lithium, virus nickel-cadmium or lead-based batteries, to be “safe” for disposal (http://www.batterypoweronline.com/eprints/Palladium0510.html). Because lithium is a greener battery and will continue to be widely needed and used, I agree with Brendan that more than one recycling plant should be built.
A joint US/Bolivian mining operation is a good idea as far as harvesting the available lithium for use with current battery technology goes, and sustainable recycling in multiple locations would certainly extend the lifetime of the lithium mines. However, research into more alternatives should begin long before they become necessary. We should take advantage of the lithium available now, and establish a lithium recycling infrastructure, but we should spend equal time and resources looking for the next reliable power source.
ReplyDeleteAs Gabe said, looking into alternative battery solutions is a good idea, although if the world became dependent on silver-zinc batteries, the same problem of a finite resource would exist. It does seem like silver and zinc are more readily available than lithium at this point though, so it would be one of those classic engineering problems for some other generation to deal with.
ReplyDeleteI think any battery solution would depend on (somewhat) rare earth metals, so developing a good recycling program will need to be done eventually, whether it's before we run out of lithium or whatever we're using, or after. It would probably be more responsible for us to get a head start though.
It seems that the consensus on how to go about solving this problem involves two parts: creating a large recycling infrastructure and finding alternative storage solutions to lithium. When looking into both of these areas, it seems that the recycling process is already beginning to take place with the company called Toxco already having developed a lithium recycling process. We as engineers need to begin to make this a more viable option for the use of lithium by progressing the technology that makes this possible. There have also already been some alternatives developed to using lithium, some which involve the use of zinc. A technique that uses zinc and air looks to have some promise since it uses much less of the raw material to hold a charge than the lithium battery does. Working to progress these two technologies will greatly help in getting more EVs on the road in the future.
ReplyDeleteTwo additional items to weight in when looking for the best type of energy storage device are one, calculating the energy required to mine and process the different types of minerals and then assemble the respective device, and two, assessing the device’s service life. From these values an evaluation should be made to show if simply using fossil fuel (gasoline) in automobiles is more environmentally friendly then burning the fuel elsewhere to make EVs. I realize that this kind of cost analysis would be based on today’s cost of production and that innovations---which would change an evaluation such as this---are usually made once a need is imminent or present. (Concept being termed as “well to wheel” see http://welltowheel.blogspot.com/)
ReplyDeleteThere's a misconception here that this is actually a problem. Free market economy will dictate when we can't use it anymore and big companies will stop buying heinously expensive devices to power their cars. "Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need as well as greed has followed us to the stars and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse."
ReplyDeleteAnd all this talk about whether or not we should go into Bolivia or not for lithium is trivial because nobody outside the government has the right to declare war on them and they've made clear their policies on mining rights. Comibol (the state-run) lithium mining company) has exclusive rights. President Morales has publicly said “the government of Bolivia will never give away control of this natural resource.” Speculation on who should be mining their lithium is purely hypothetical unless you plan on starting your own military campaign.
sources:
CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Centauri Monopoly"
http://analysis.evupdate.com/industry-insight/south-american-scramble-tapping-bolivia%E2%80%99s-lithium-deposits
So far we’ve talked about and addressed the following items:
ReplyDelete- Legal, ethical, and governmental limitations regarding mining in Bolivia ( 1. Bolivia’s rights, 2. Individuals rights, 3. Ability of the U.S. to help facilitate mining)
- Cost/benefit of mining lithium
- The need to remain independent from dependency on lithium (or any “one” resource)
- The development of the recycling infrastructure in the US
- Other energy storage devices
Independent research and government funding should be focused on a recycling infrastructure for lithium and alternative storage solutions, as Brendan concluded. This is necessary to help remedy the predicted lithium crises and keep EVs a emergent technology. The plan should include research into how best to use lithium in batteries in a way which keeps its retrieval in mind; recycling for lithium should also stretch into its others sources (grease, glass, etc.) as relevant; plus continue research into super-capacitors (EDLCs) and investigation into other electric storage devices.
From continued research online, I found an energy density to power density chart on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lithium_Ion_Capacitor_Chart.png). This shows that lithium ion capacitors are also a very effective way to store power, continuing to point out that recycling lithium is an eminent need.
The Department of Energy has been working on a number of solutions that are indirectly related to our topic. They are pushing for cleaner and more efficient use of fossil fuel in the Recovery Act Projects and are looking toward hydrogen as an usable and portable energy source.
The one thing dictating whether any of this will stick is economics. Does it make sense to the consumer to buy it or does it have the capacity to make sense in the future? As for the recycling program I really think it does. If the locations are convenient enough and they find out a cost-effective way to get people a little bit of cash for their batteries for their used batteries (read: without hiring someone to sit in a booth and manually do it for minimum wage) I think it has a good chance to flourish.
ReplyDeleteAnd it would be great if it did. Keeping the existing lithium cycling through our country is a great way to decrease dependency.
Consumer electronics have already proven to be very successful applications for the lithium ion battery.
Cars, I predict, won't be. There are too many problems with it and other solutions make more sense. I think this is going to be like VHS vs Beta where one will win out and then everyone will start using it. It's nice to think of a pluralized fuel economy where there are many competing solutions and we don't depend on any one of them. At first glance it seems so beautiful and organic; an easy sell to 90% of the people really concerned with this sort of stuff.
It just won't work that way, though. Imagine if you just ran out of juice as you pulled into a fueling station only to find out they didn't carry what you needed. And how is anyone ever going to move? Or road trip? You can't pull the sort of stuff we do these days in cars, like 26 hour stretches of road trips with people driving in shifts. Even if we had the most hardcore batteries conceivable that could somehow go strong for 26 hours, think how long that would take to recharge. And where are they going to recharge it while this hypothetical owner is hundreds of miles from home? Better yet, where do they stay if they're tethered to the outlet their car is plugged into? We love these freedoms and we refuse, as a society, to regress.
Besides that, they just don't operate that well in harsh conditions, which pretty much every place on Earth endures at least once a year.
A promising alternative is the hydrogen fuel cell. Just load it up and let it go, just like gas.
Of course the mining debate for the fuel cell just switches from lithium to platinum, but it's still a better choice for cars.
In conclusion, I'm convinced lithium ion batteries just aren't right for cars. But the market will decide that once and for all.
I agree with James in the sense that looking at the current technologies available for EV's gives a bleak outlook for the future popularity. There could be some great technological advances that make EV's much more convenient and inexpensive, but we haven't gotten there yet. As expensive as fossil fuels are getting, we are so used to them being cheap and plentiful that the price will probably continue to go up even after alternative methods have been found and accepted. It's only after a number of years and dollars have been put into a technology when it becomes close to its most efficient point, and whether that alternative solution is EV's or hydrogen fuel cells, or something else entirely, a lot more trial and error needs to happen before they can really compete with petroleum. As was stated before, economics will be the main driver in these advances.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the United States government has been making many advances in establishing EV recharging stations throughout the country. An quote from the KentReporter states “ECOtality received a grant of $115 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to help install over the next three years nearly 15,000 charging stations in 16 cities in six states (Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Tennessee and Texas) and the District of Columbia.” ECOtality is only one company that is taking creating a EV charging infrastructure into a new level. Although many of the charging stations are only in larger cities, the fact that the infrastructure is being established shows the potential for it in the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gabe that creating a good recycling infrastructure is the start to the battery problem. Being able to use the lithium that has already been mined and is in the United States to continue to provide storage for EVs is important to sustaining the EV market. These recycling facilities do not need to focus only on lithium, but they can continue to develop the technology to recycle other possible metals such as zinc and platinum, which are both used in batteries.
ReplyDeleteAs far as alternate battery technology goes, zinc-air batteries appear to be the leader in replacing the lithium batteries that are currently in use. According to an article published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the zinc-air battery has three times the storage capacity per volume than the lithium battery. The fact that there are zinc deposits in the United States and there is more zinc throughout the world makes the US much less dependent on others to provide storage for energy in electric vehicles. According to GreenCarCongress.com, there is more that 1.8 gigatons of zinc throughout the world, with more than 35% of that being the United States. Continuing to pursue this technology appears to be the best answer in being able to sustain the use of electric vehicles in the United States.
ReplyDeleteResources:
www.pnwlocalnews.com
www.technologyreview.com
www.greencarcongress.com
So from what I can tell, we all more or less agree that the US should not focus its energy on trying to get lithium out of Bolivia since the Bolivian government does not want us there and it would inevitably lead to conflict. Instead we should develop a good recycling infrastructure and work on alternate battery technologies, such as zinc-air batteries. Both of these options make America more economically independent and are better for the environment.
ReplyDelete