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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.
Looking at this problem initially brings a few thoughts to mind. Just from my past research and obsession with alternative energy transportation, it is clear that the way of the future for automobiles is going to be a combined effort. Electric Vehicles is a promising emerging technology that will certainly play a roll in supporting a large portion of the soon-to-be collapsing oil infrastructure, but we will certainly need other technologies.
ReplyDeleteJust from looking at the presented scenario, we can see that there is far more Lithium Carbonate estimated in Bolivia alone to manufacture a year's worth of vehicles at the 2009 rate; 36,500 tons/million cars X 52 million cars produced = 1.9 million tons of Litium carbonate needed. With an estimated 5.4 million tons estimated in Bolivia, and that being about 50% of the worlds resources, we can see that supply is not the problem here. Instead, infrastructure and technology seem to be the limiting factors. Legal matters will no doubt be a huge ball and chain for EVs, but as engineers I feel we need to focus on solutions to establishing recycling and manufacturing infrastructure, along with new battery research.
By looking the scenario, I think the electric vehicles that power by lithium is a good choice in the next 10, 20 years but not forever because it seems the Lithium is not an unlimited resource. In my opinion, vehicles that power by water or solar energy might be a better energy in the future because they are unlimited. Based on my reading back to my country in Taiwan, there are some experimental vehicles that generated by water and it was success.
ReplyDeleteSo from what I’ve read we don’t, for at least the next few years, need to worry about where we are going to find our lithium for producing the EV’s. The main problem is that we only have a limited amount of lithium in the world and based on the EV efficiencies, the total world supplies of Lithium wouldn’t really last that long. To begin to solve the problem we need to spread our focus to encompass designing new batteries that use less lithium, increasing engine efficiencies so that they get better mileage and have longer life cycles so that the demand for cars will decrease, and creating better recycling methods so that we can recycle as much lithium as possible from used li-ion batteries. Any one of these three options will give us more time to discover a new more abundant source to power our vehicles. Lithium batteries are definitely a better source of power compared to oil but we need to keep researching and designing new technologies so that we can eventually replace lithium with an even cleaner, more abundant energy source.
ReplyDeleteOverall, the main focus for the next ten years should be creating a much larger recycling infrastructure. Building one plant isn't going to be enough to sustain the united states. What we need to do is set up a network across the united states with multiple recycling plant locations so that we can get the used lithium ion batteries to the factories faster. Once we have a network of lithium recycling plants across the us we could then turn our focus to better more effecient recycling techniques that would help us recover more lithium from each used battery thus stretching the resource. The european countries would most likely be the other major consumer of lithium ion batteries so for the sake of keeping the lithium supplies around long enough we would have to help them set up a recycling network and maybe team up in our research into better recycling techniques.
ReplyDeletePrimary Problem:
ReplyDeleteThe depletion of natural resources’ caused by overpopulation and increased living standards provide for the leading environmental problems people face today. This article presents a possible solution for the US government to decrease national oil consumption. In 2003, a study was conducted which provided the annual consumption in litters per person, gas and diesel fuel, to be 1850 litters higher than the global average. As people look to lithium for vehicle batteries, will lithium resources be enough to cover our current usage, manufacturing processes, cell phones, computers, etc., and the future projections of 10% global sales in electric vehicles?
Secondary Problem:
The product lifecycle management (PLM) provides this new technology of batteries a major secondary problem. As the article states, Lithium can be recycled, but there is far too little existing structure and will need to grow exponentially as the technology progresses. Another issue of recycling is the mass waste from previous cars as the EV starts to replace old cars at an increasing rate.
I mention that lithium is not an unlimited resource on last week. In addition, it might not be a good business for the United States to develop the lithium because almost over 50% of the lithium is in the Bolivia. The United States might not have a good opportunity to make more profit on it. Also, I think the Japanese vehicle company is having a lead on developing the electrical vehicle. Although America have a great market on selling electrical car, if the America car has less efficiency on driving range than Japanese car, who will buy it?
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the only problem here is the Lithium mining. On top of this being bad for the environment the energy consumed has to come from a source as well. So every night when the car is plugged in to recharge, that energy must come from somewhere and there are still many coal plants that when compared seems like much larger of a problem. In areas such as Washington there is a lot of supplementary energy like the hydro-electric power but some areas still depend greatly on petroleum products.
ReplyDeleteWe all agree that lithium is the best choice for powering electrical cars for now. However,
ReplyDeleteI mention that Japan is leading the technology on developing hybrid-electric car on yesterday's post.
by looking the data below
2010 Civic Hybrid CVT AT-PZEV w/ Leather and Navigation
Hybrid - Electric 45/40 mpg $27,000
2010 Prius Prius V
Hybrid - Electric 48/51 mpg $28,070
2011 Fusion Hybrid
Hybrid - Electric 36/41 mpg $28,340
2011 Milan I4 Hybrid
Hybrid - Electric 36/41 mpg $28,345
2010 Milan Hybrid Sedan
Hybrid - Electric 36/41 mpg $28,180
It seems like I am right after I did some research. It seems the Japanese car is leading on driving range and price by looking the detail above. The America car might not have the opportunity to beat Japanese car. Therefore, in my opinion, I suggest the company should develop another resource to power cars in order to win the competition for example, solar energy, water, and ethanol.
It seems we are all in agreement that tapping into more lithium mines is not a sustainable solution to the problem. I also believe we should be looking at other alternative energies.
ReplyDeleteI do feel that electricity is the way to go with alternative energy. As Tyler mentioned though, the current methods of creating electricity are not ideal, since most of our energy comes from coal, which also is not sustainable. I feel that both solar energy and hydrogen fuel cell are potential solutions to the problem if we can advance the technology, since solar energy is unlimited, salt water supply is essentially unlimited, and both are clean forms of energy.