The oceans are loaded with lithium. More than humanity could ever use. The Saudis have figured out a way to get at it with high efficiency and low cost. The byproducts of it’s extraction are hydrogen and chlorine gases both of which are more valuable than the lithium itself.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-06/kauo-ech060321.php
The actual science for those capable of understanding it.
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ee/d1ee00354b
“The researchers estimate that the cell would need only US$5 of electricity to extract 1 kilogram of lithium from seawater. The value of hydrogen and chlorine produced by the cell would more than offset this cost, and residual seawater could also be used in desalination plants to provide freshwater.”
UT Austin one of my Alma Mater’s has commercialized this process now I personally as a Hydrogeologist have worked with the beta units of this tech.
https://news.utexas.edu/2018/02/09/new-lithium-collection-method-could-boost-global-supply/
“Produced water from shale gas fields in Texas is rich in lithium. Advanced separation materials concepts such as ours could potentially turn this waste stream into a resource recovery opportunity,” Freeman said.
Each well in the Barnett and Eagle Ford can generate up to 300,000 gallons of produced water per week. Using their new process, Freeman and his team conservatively estimate that from just one week’s worth of produced water, enough lithium can be recovered to power 200 electric cars or 1.6 million smartphones.”
There are over 100,000 active wells in the Permian basin alone every one of them produces burned in a avg six to one water to oil basis. Those wells are as rich or richer in lithium chloride as the Barnett or Eagleford I also have worked both those basins as well.
Tesla and their Chinese partner’s have already crossed the $100 a kWh for LiCoMg chemistry and $80 kwh for LiFePO4 and the iron phosphate cells are the million mile rated ones. 4000 full depth of discharge cycles with 330 miles range is well over a million miles. That 4000 cycles is to 80% capacity those cells will still do another 4000 cycles down to 50% as second life in a power wall somewhere. A 60kWh pack in second life as a power wall will store 40 to 30 kWh for another 4000 cycles. 30kWh is three days for the avg European home and a two nights for the avg American home.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-tesla-batteries-exclusive-idUSKBN22Q1WC
The new massive gigafactory in Austin Texas will be using UT Austins LiFePO4 cell tech to make cells under $100kwh for The American market some time next year. If you are near Austin drive by it truly impressive in size it’s five decks of production shape over an area in the square mile size range. Massive is an understatement.
The simple fact is the age of lithium is here there is no stopping it. Luddites gonna lude but they are powerless to stop the move into the 21st century. Audi VW and BMW are all ending thier internal combustion engine lines by 2030 or sooner. $80 kwh kills the ICE engine in every way economically.
I have paid for solar panels on my roof I leased as Tesla model S for a year. My charge cost via grid power would have been 7 cents kWh, I have a years data in Texas heat and traffic in urban driving that S got 4 to 4.5 miles to the kWh. Motorway at 80 freedom units was 3.2 to 3.5 miles to the kWh. I used it to commute 20 miles round trip.per day in bumper to bumper grid lock something a Tesla excels at with regen. 4 miles to a 7 cent kWh is the equivalent to 1.75 cents per mile. Gasoline today is $2.8 gal a model S sized sedan would be lucky to get 30 mph in grid lock but well use that. 2.80/30= is 9.3 cents per mile. For a 30 mpg ICE car to equal 1.75 cents per mile gasoline would need to cost 52.5 cents per gallon. Put another way that Tesla on commercial power was like paying 52 cents per gallon of fuel. Since my panels payed themselves off already in under 5 years I drove that Tesla for free in fuel costs, not counting the loss of the sellable power to the grid. It worked out better economical for me to sell my solar power during the day to ERCOT and then buy back off peak power at night to charge at 3.6 cents per kWh so in real terms that Tesla was running on the equivalent of 27 cents per gallon of gasoline the math is easy. 3.6/9= 0.9 cents per mile. 0.9 cents per mile times 30mpg = 27 cents to equal the same 0.9 cents per mile. My lease cost on that Tesla was less than the last lease I had for a luxury Volvo so it’s moot on the capital investment cost It was already less than my prior luxury car.
Like I said the age of lithium is here.
Typo..3.6 kwh over 4 miles is 0.9 cents per mile.
“It worked out better economical for me to sell my solar power during the day to ERCOT and then buy back off peak power at night to charge at 3.6 cents per kWh so in real terms that Tesla was running on the equivalent of 27 cents per gallon of gasoline the math is easy. 3.6/4= 0.9 cents per mile. 0.9 cents per mile times 30mpg = 27 cents to equal the same 0.9 cents per mile. “
I don’t think we are in the age of lithium, but we’ll see.
Power density is still too low for consumer towing. And the capacity is NOT increasing fast enough to attack that requirement anytime soon. And even worse, charge performance is not increasing all that well either. Your price on kwh has no bearing if you can’t build enough capacity into a tow vehicle. And the problem is a exponential one. More tow distance, means heavier weight of the tow vehicle, which means decreased distance. Batteries can’t win here currently. Maybe in 10 years?
Unless you subscribe to the Klaus Schwab idea of “you’ll own nothing and be happy”, I don’t see myself happy unless I can tow a trailer with my tools, generators, and luggage to anywhere I want without stopping every 100 miles for a 45m charge.
And that is the other thing. Often there is no sun for up to 48 hours after a hurricane, and ice storms can last days, not to mention the damage wind storms can cause to solar installations. When you can’t buy gasoline, remember, you also won’t be fueling your portable light plant, and you won’t be charging your solar-powered battery bank.
Are they going to offer us hurricane, tornado, and ice storm alley folks 100$ 5 gallon drums of gas in limited amounts for these special occasions? Or is that the coming equity, prevent anyone from preparing for a disaster?
Concerning wear, other than glowing commentaries from Tesla about their million mile cars, we really don’t have an insight into how long the batteries actually last, since Tesla is the only serious application of large Lithium Ion packs.
If gasoline starts to dwindle in availability, I guess I will have to make ethanol to power my light plants. I sure won’t bet on solar in a time of disaster!
BTW, I may sound like a Tesla hater -— but I am not. The problem is that everywhere I normally drive, does not have superchargers for extended distances. And when I go to those places I tow a trailer, and while there is downhill, back is uphill, I can calculate the Megajoules of liquid energy difference between the two directions, going through the injectors of my truck’s V8 engine.
Honestly, my favorite idea is to convert nuclear electricity & heat (cheap) into gasoline. Problem solved. CO2 stabilizes, if you believe that religion, and we still get the best store of energy known to man (that doesn’t have nuclear radiation risk), oil. I know there is no free lunch here, but if you are producing lots of cheap thermal and electrical energy, why not?
PING