Lithium
Lithium Batteries
The basic technology: Lithium ions move through a liquid from the cathode to the anode, and back again.
Lithium is found in Chile.
The new 'gold rush' for green lithium
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201124-how-geothermal-lithium-could-revolutionise-green-energy
Cornwall, 1864. A hot spring is discovered nearly 450m (1,485ft) below ground in the Wheal Clifford, a copper mine just outside the mining town of Redruth. Glass bottles are immersed to their necks in its bubbling waters, carefully sealed and sent off for testing. The result is the discovery of so great a quantity of lithium – eight or 10 times as much per gallon as had been found in any hot spring previously analysed – that scientists suspect “it may prove of great commercial value”.
But 19th-Century England had little need for the element, and this 122C (252F) lithium-rich water continued boiling away in the dark for more than 150 years.
Fast forward to autumn 2020, and a site nearby the Wheal Clifford in Cornwall has been confirmed as having some of the world’s highest grades of lithium in geothermal waters. The commercial use for lithium in the 21st Century could not be clearer. It is found not only inside smart phones and laptops, but is now vital to the clean energy transition, for the batteries that power electric vehicles and store energy so renewable power can be released steadily and reliably.
Lithium is currently sourced mainly from hard rock mines, such as those in Australia, or underground brine reservoirs below the surface of dried lake beds, mostly in Chile and Argentina. Hard rock mining – where the mineral is extracted from open pit mines and then roasted using fossil fuels – leaves scars in the landscape, requires a large amount of water and releases 15 tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of lithium, according to an analysis of the whole lithium production process by raw materials experts Minviro. The other conventional option, extracting lithium from underground reservoirs, relies on even more water to extract the lithium – and it takes place in typically very water-scarce parts of the world, leading to indigenous communities questioning their sustainability.
Extracting lithium from geothermal waters – found not just in Cornwall, but Germany and the US as well – has a tiny environmental footprint in comparison, including very low carbon emissions.
Company claims solid-state lithium-metal battery breakthrough
All modern lithium-ion batteries are, in a way, a compromise. The original concept was a “lithium metal” battery, which could hold substantially more energy in the same volume. There was just one small problem: they invariably self-destruct. But this week, a long-watched battery-tech company announced that it believes to have solved this problem. If what the company shows is accurate, this is a big deal.
The solution was to utilize a graphite anode. The orderly structure of graphite makes a good hotel for lithium ions, which safely check into a room for their stay during charging. This greatly reduces the risk of dendrite formation. But this graphite can take up nearly half the volume of the cell without adding additional energy storage. This makes the battery work safely but dilutes its performance.
One strategy that has been pursued to improve lithium-ion batteries is the creation of a solid electrolyte material. That’s attractive because it replaces the flammable component of the battery and also because it could reduce unwanted chemical reactions between the electrolyte and other battery materials that cause degradation over time. QuantumScape has been working on a solid electrolyte for around a decade, after the project spun off from a Stanford lab and received some funding from the US Department of Energy. (Although the company started with a different technology that didn’t pan out.) But in addition to these benefits, QuantumScape says its solid electrolyte material also prevents dendrites from forming.
The glass battery is a type of solid-state battery. It uses a glass electrolyte and lithiumor sodium metal electrodes.
Quantum Glass Battery
How does it work?
The secret is in a newly discovered super material, what I call “Quantum Ion” glass.
Don’t let the name “glass” fool you. As you’re about to see, this material is unlike any glass you’ve probably ever witnessed before.
You see, this new Battery replaces the liquid electrolyte normally found in Lithium-Ion batteries, with this special glass to create a completely SOLID battery.
Unlike the liquid electrolyte found in lithium batteries, “Quantum Ion” glass is NOT flammable, so there’s no danger of explosion.
It can be cut, nailed, stabbed, shot — it will not catch fire or explode.
Here’s the best part.
Even though it’s solid, this new material has as much as 27-TIMES more surface area than its liquid counterpart — allowing more ions to pass through it, at a much faster rate.
The result is a breakthrough battery Fortune is calling “an energy revolution” that stores more energy in less space…
Drastically increases charging speed and — this part is key — requires almost NO rare or expensive materials and therefore, is much cheaper to make.
This last part is CRITICAL to the mass adoption of this technology, as you’re about to see.
And because the revolutionary “Quantum Ion” glass doesn’t degrade like today’s liquid electrolyte does — it can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times without losing energy density.
Charging Time.
It takes 75 minutes to fully charge the lithium-ion batteries inside a Tesla. That’s simply not practical in today’s fast-paced world.
But with the Quantum Glass Battery, everything changes. With preliminary testing showing a charge time as fast as 60 seconds, the comparison isn’t even close.
Range.
The technology behind Quantum Glass Battery now promises to take you as far as 1,000 miles before it needs to be charged again — enough to overcome even the most severe case of range anxiety!
Battery Lifetime.
Constant charging and discharging slowly erodes the performance of today’s lithium-ion batteries.
Safety.
The lithium-ion batteries inside virtually all of today’s electronics can easily explode…
The Quantum Glass Battery contains NO explosive compounds.
It can be shot, nailed, cut… you name it — and still continue to power devices without skipping a beat.