This National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries, developed by the Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries will help guide investments to develop a domestic lithium-battery manufacturing value chain that creates equitable clean-energy manufacturing jobs in America while helping to mitigate climate change impacts.
The elimination of critical minerals (such as cobalt and nickel) from lithium batteries, and new processes that decrease the cost of battery materials such as cathodes, anodes, and electrolytes, are key enablers of future growth in the materials-processing industry.
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are considered the prime candidate for both EVs and energy storage technologies , but the limitations in term of cost, performance and the constrained lithium supply have also attracted wide attention , .
The best estimate for the lithium required is around 160g of Li metal per kWh of battery power, which equals about 850g of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in a battery per kWh (Martin, 2017). This means a typical EV (with around 50 kWh battery capacity) will require around 40 kg of LCE.
Around 0.75 Mt LCE is accounted for by carbonate demand and 1.25 Mt LCE by hydroxide demand for a total of 2 Mt LCE demand in 2030. This outcome depends on EV growth and battery technology assumptions, as high nickel cathode batteries require lithium hydroxide while lithium iron phosphate batteries require lithium carbonate.
Over the years, lithium-ion batteries, widely used in electric vehicles (EVs) and portable devices, have increased in energy density, providing extended range and improved performance.