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Lithium, an abundant source of energy Lithium, which is a soft metal of mineral origin, is an essential component of current batteries. It’s a
non-
renewable energy source,
but there remain large resources on Earth (the 33rd most abundant element on the planet).
The exploitable worldwide resources are estimated at between
7 and 28 million tonnes, according to ADEME*. The largest deposit in the world is in south-west Bolivia and, by itself, represents a third of worldwide resources.
Chile is the leading lithium exporter (39.3 % of worldwide production **) and has the
second-largest reserve with the Salar de Atacama.
China (13.3%) and Argentina (9.8%) follow.
Other deposits are exploited: in particular, salt lakes in Tibet and mines in Australia, Russia and the United States.
The Mediterranean also contains one of the largest lithium reserves in the world, which represents an opportunity for European and North African countries to launch production.
However, unlike oil, lithium is not easy to extract. On account of its high reactivity to water and air, it cannot be directly removed in a metallic form, but rather in a state of impurity within salts from other alkaline metals.
The extraction and refinement of lithium are therefore lengthy, complex and costly operations,
which involve considerable technical and financial means. As there is high demand for lithium in the computing and telephony markets, its price has exploded these past years, moving from around $350 a tonne in 2003 to almost $3,000 in 2008. With the arrival of the electric car, this increase could therefore intensify.
* the French Environment and Energy Management Agency**Worldwide lithium production figures from the USGS (United States Geological Study), 7th January 2009 Production accelerates
Strategic alliances and joint ventures between car manufacturers and battery producers have become more numerous in the past few years.
For example, in 2007, the Renault-Nissan Group created a joint venture - AESC (Automotive Energy Supply Corporation) – with the Japanese supplier NEC. Battery production began in 2009 in a factory on the Zama site in Japan. The Group also announced the creation of
a joint venture in Flins in France to mass-produce Li-ion batteries (up to 100,000 a year) starting in 2012. Which should be enough to supply not only the Group’s electric vehicles but also those of other manufacturers.
On the other side of the Atlantic, General Motors has gone into partnership with LG Chem (Michigan) and A123Systems (Massachusetts) to produce Li-ion batteries for its forthcoming rechargeable hybrid models (Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera), and also for other kinds of transport:
buses, lorries and even planes.
Currently being bought out by PSA, the Japanese company Mitsubishi Motors already produces its own Li-ion batteries for its i-MiEV city car and future Peugeot and Citroen models. The German giant Volkswagen is also counting on Japanese know-how through its partnership with Sanyo.
Whereas Mercedes and BMW have chosen the company SAFT-Johnson Controls to supply batteries for the Mercedes.
S-Class hybrid and BMW 7 Series ActiveHybrid models. On 19th June, this Franco-American structure, which is already established in the US, in Michigan, opened a new factory in Nersac in the Charente region, France. The factory is capable of producing several million batteries a year!
Recyclable up to 90%
According to Maxime Pasquier of ADEME,
a Li-ion vehicle battery necessitates between 1 and 3 kg of lithium. Between
4 and 10 million tonnes of lithium would be required to provide for the production of
2 billion vehicles in the world. If the reserves (estimated at between 7 and 28 million tonnes) are sufficient to provide for the mass production of Li-ion vehicle batteries, the essential question that remains is that of recycling, not only for the protection of the environment but also for the replacement of the batteries.
"
A Li-ion battery is recyclable up to 90%; only the organic solvents are impossible to treat and generate waste".
Working parties are already looking into solutions in favour of the complete recycling of car batteries; and this is with the help of existing recycling channels in the field of batteries (computing, mobile telephony…).
