Пугалки для обывателя, журналюги услышали слово литий и понеслось. Вот что пишет доктор материаловедения Markus Lienkamp из Технического Университета Мюнхена, электромобиль чьей разработки я упоминал (до этого он работал по теме электромобильности в ФВ).
The batteries require copper, aluminum, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite and lithium. None of the substances are really scarce, but appropriate investments have to be made to break them down, especially with cobalt and natural graphite.
The availability of cobalt can become critical for NMC cells. Cobalt is mined almost exclusively in the Congo. On the one hand, this is politically difficult, on the other hand, the mining conditions there are questionable from both a social and an ecological point of view. In principle, cobalt can be substituted by more readily available elements. VW has recently attempted to conclude a long-term supply contract for cobalt below spot market prices (ie current prices). According to the press release, this attempt failed because no provider wanted to get involved in this contract. This shows how tense the situation looks with this raw material. The price almost tripled in 2017.
The lithium price also rose significantly. The availability of lithium is constantly being questioned. Large deposits in the salt lakes of Chile are currently being exploited cheaply. In principle, there are sufficient deposits in other countries. If necessary, lithium could also be obtained from sea water. In addition, the proportion in lithium-ion batteries is not that high.
The quantities of aluminum and copper required for electrical machines are small in relation to worldwide production and can be easily bought on the world market. Copper as a base material for electrical machines and high-voltage cables can be partially replaced by aluminum. The arrester foils made of copper cannot be replaced in batteries for electrochemical reasons.
Rare earth metals are mainly extracted in China. In other countries there are also deposits that have not yet been developed for economic reasons. Only the type of electrical machine of the permanently excited synchronous machine is dependent on the metals of the rare earths. It can be replaced by the externally excited synchronous machine or asynchronous machine. The availability of rare earth metals is therefore not a real limitation.