"Argentina could produce batteries without affecting lithium exports"

The development of lithium batteries is a key piece for the energy transition, necessary to move away from fossil fuels responsible for climate change. However, this technology faces technological challenges globally and those unique to Argentina, where a significant reserve of this element is concentrated.

Ezequiel Leiva is a researcher specializing in the development of new batteries. He leads the Sustainable Energy Laboratory (LAES) at the National University of Córdoba, where he also teaches. Additionally, he is a senior researcher at Conicet. He received the 2023 Konex Award in Physicochemistry and Inorganic Chemistry.

Leiva discusses potential scenarios in this field and Argentina's role. He also highlights the next technologies that could contribute to improving the use of sustainable energy.

What is the perspective for lithium battery manufacturing in the next 20 years?

I believe there will be a boom driven by the production of electric vehicles. According to a study by Bloomberg, by 2026, the costs of electric vehicles and combustion vehicles will be the same, at least in developed countries. This will undoubtedly shift the balance. The production costs of electric cars will be strongly influenced by the decrease in battery costs, since currently, the cost of the battery accounts for approximately 40% of the car's value. Countries like Norway are already patenting more electric cars than combustion cars. In China, around 6 million electric vehicles were patented in 2022. That’s an important number, considering that Argentina’s car fleet is around 15 million.

How should Argentina act with its lithium reserves in light of this immediate future?

It is often said that having lithium is not in itself an advantage for battery manufacturing since the battery contains other materials. However, if we think about Latin America, the region has reserves of all the minerals needed to manufacture lithium batteries of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. From nickel to titanium, as well as aluminum, sulfur, manganese, copper, and others. Designing continental strategies is beyond the reach of scientists, but this is something that our political leaders should value.

Could the country or region produce batteries without sacrificing the export of these raw materials?

It is also often said that manufacturing lithium batteries in our country would harm our export of lithium carbonate. A simple calculation shows that this is not the case. A lithium battery for a current electric vehicle requires 20 kilograms of lithium carbonate. Let’s assume we want to produce electric cars at the relative rate of Germany, which is 13.6% annually of the total number of cars. In our country, around 536,000 vehicles are produced, so about 73,000 should be electric. In total, we would need 1,460 tons of lithium carbonate. And Argentina exports around 33,000 tons, so this internal consumption would represent only 4.4% of the total exported. Argentina could supply batteries to the domestic market without affecting the export of lithium.

There is talk of storage systems at the foot of wind and solar generation plants. How feasible is this economically and technically?

Sustainable energy storage is a possibility. But not so much in mass storage, but more at the household level. There is even talk of a second life for electric vehicle lithium batteries to be used in household storage. Storing energy from intermittent sources like wind and solar can reduce the effect of demand peaks or, in systems where the energy cost is variable, it can be used to store it when energy is cheap and then return it to the grid when it is more expensive.

What are the technical bottlenecks for lithium battery manufacturing in a country like Argentina?

The automated machinery needed for manufacturing is undoubtedly the biggest issue. In the current automated battery manufacturing process, there is one very critical stage: the addition of the solvent, typically an organic carbonate, which must be done in an inert atmosphere, especially without water, which is a fatal contaminant in batteries. This requires technological development that we currently do not have in the country. Other types of electrolytes are being developed that could help solve the problem (solid electrolytes), but they have other issues.

Some analysts believe that lithium's days are numbered and that its contribution to the energy system will be short-lived, as other element batteries or hydrogen cells will emerge.

In mobile applications, lithium will hardly have a rival in battery technology. For example, sodium is heavier than lithium; magnesium and aluminum have issues with ion mobility that have not yet been resolved. In a few years, sodium might rival lithium in stationary batteries, where the energy density of the material is not decisive, but rather its cost. Regarding hydrogen, there are several issues that have been unresolved for decades in applications in electromobility, such as the cost of fuel cells, as the cathode contains precious metals like platinum. There is also the low energy density of hydrogen. To give you an idea, at the same pressure, the amount of energy that can be stored in hydrogen is about one-third of what can be stored in compressed natural gas. Additionally, hydrogen generation should be done from renewable energy sources. To achieve this, the cost of current electrolyzers needs to be reduced.

How has the lithium battery evolved?

The first commercial lithium-ion cell appeared in early 1991. The energy density of those batteries was around 80 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg). Currently, the best commercial batteries exceed 300 Wh/kg. For example, the 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5 has a 453 kg battery with a capacity of 53 kilowatt-hours and can travel 393 km. This means the energy density is 117 Wh/kg. Today's cells almost triple that density and would allow a car with a 200 kg battery, a more reasonable weight, to achieve a range of about 500 km. However, they are not the best option in terms of safety. There hasn't been a qualitative leap in this technology.

What is your group studying regarding lithium and hydrogen?

At the Sustainable Energy Laboratory (LAES) of the National University of Córdoba [http://www.laesunc.com/laes/], we have been studying lithium batteries for 10 years. We developed our first collaboration with the company Iturbide, which allowed us to understand how these devices work. In a second phase, we began collaborating with Y-TEC on new materials. One of them was prepared from silica (a component of sand) and carbonized sugar. It has the advantage of charging and discharging very quickly, and it was the subject of an international patent. We are also working on 'post-lithium-ion' batteries. For example, lithium-sulfur batteries that use sulfur as an active material for the cathode. Sulfur is abundant and cheap, unlike current batteries that use more expensive and polluting elements like nickel and cobalt.

How much longer until these batteries reach the market?

It is a very important technology but has a series of inconveniences, such as the dissolution of sulfur cathode material and degradation of the anode. These issues are the subject of research worldwide. We have already managed to synthesize a material for sulfur lithium-battery cathodes from a renewable resource that is abundant in Argentina, and we hope to patent it soon.