The market
The global market for cathode materials was estimated at 59,470 tons in 2011, with total sales valued at $600 million. Demand for lithium is increasing at a rate of 30% per year and is expected to maintain this pace for the foreseeable future. Consequently, lithium prices in 2005, the primary material for high-density batteries, were limited to one dollar per kilogram and have since increased tenfold to $10,000 per ton. Given that the number of electric vehicles is projected to reach 500,000 by 2015, the base of electrical energy generated from batteries is expected to increase to 15 billion kWh/year. This puts enormous pressure on the supply of materials. A small 5 kWh lithium battery for a compact car requires 300 grams of lithium for every kWh of storage capacity. However, a full-size SUV would use 3 kg of pure lithium per unit of power. Due to its high energy density, lithium is being adopted worldwide as the primary metal for powering all mobile devices. Laptops and most portable mobile devices represent the largest market segment, despite their higher cost. However, the emerging market is mobility and transportation. Latin America controls approximately 80% of the world's lithium reserves, with Chile (3 million tons), Argentina (2 million tons), Bolivia (5.4 million tons), and Brazil (<1 million tons). China ranks fourth with 1.1 million tons. If the world were to trade oil for lithium, South America would become the new Middle East, and Bolivia, with its Uyuni salt flats—a unique and ancient ecosystem—would be richer and more politically powerful than Saudi Arabia has ever been. The United States, Europe, and Japan would once again rely on external sources, while China could guarantee its self-sufficiency thanks to its own reserves. The largest lithium producer is SQM of Chile, with an annual production of 27,000 tonnes. Its main local competitor is SCL (controlled by Chemetall of Germany), with an annual production of 14,000 tonnes. FMC Lithium in Argentina competes with Admiralty Resources of Australia and Sterling Resources of China. Most of the future lithium supply will have to come from salt lakes located in mountain ranges at altitudes of 3,000 meters, where environmentally sensitive mining will take place under difficult conditions, potentially jeopardizing valuable resources. The complete lack of infrastructure and strict investment regulations in Bolivia and Argentina limit traditional investment patterns for multinational corporations.
Innovation
Today, if the world's fleet of one billion vehicles is replaced at a rate of 60 million per year, and if these vehicles were replaced by hybrid or battery electric vehicles (EVs), it is clear that there is not enough lithium available in the Earth's crust to support the deployment of lithium-based EVs. Worse, under this replacement scenario, the depletion rates of lithium ores will exceed the current depletion rates of oil, and therefore switching from one non-renewable resource to another does not solve the problem of fuel for mobility, and even the carbon footprint of current mining and processing methods remains questionable. Alternative battery technologies such as ZnAir and NaNiCl are not as resource-limited but do not offer the performance sought by industry. Grzegorz Milczarek was born in Gostynin, near Warsaw, the capital of Poland. His passion for science in general, and chemistry in particular, emerged as early as primary school. He enjoyed playing with flintlock pistols and setting off firecrackers, and wondered about the forces that created those noises. His desire to understand explosives led him to specialize in chemistry at the Institute of Technical Chemistry and Electrochemistry at Poznan University of Technology, where he earned his master's degree in 1994. After a period of intensive research, Grzegorz brilliantly defended his dissertation on modified electrodes and received his doctorate in 1999. His research also took him to Japan for two years. A few months ago, he was elected vice dean of the faculty after he and his colleagues published a surprising article in Science Magazine (March 23, 2012) which—in simpler terms—proposed wooden batteries. Grzegorz and his colleague Olle Inganäs from the Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology at Linköping University (Sweden) investigated the potential uses of brown liquor, a waste product of paper processing. This chemical mixture of sulfites, lignin, and hemicellulose is often burned to produce steam. However, given the volumes and streams of residual waste after incineration, the team sought higher-value applications beyond electricity and heat. Grzegorz drew inspiration from photosynthesis and, with his team, investigated how lignin could be transformed into electrically conductive molecules that transport electrons, much like certain molecules do during photosynthesis. By embedding the sludge in a conductive polymer, they created an inexpensive cathode capable of supporting a load. This worked remarkably well. Olle and Grzegorz then created a prototype that continued to discharge even when the battery was not in use. This situation needed to be addressed, and they succeeded in finding a way to solve the problem. The team believes it can transform lignin to create a low-cost, renewable battery, thus creating a second source of revenue from wood-to-paper conversion—a battery made primarily from wood waste, which is currently a vast waste. This sounds like a typical blue economy approach.
The first cash flow
The inventors want to store renewable electricity where it is produced, without the costly grid. Now that solar technologies are reaching a competitive cost (CAS 53), the key to success is to design new energy storage systems based on cheap, renewable raw materials, thus avoiding new mining needs. The key to success has been the design of this 0.5-micron thin film produced by the Polish-Swedish team from a mixture of lignin derivatives extracted from brown liquor. Since lignin makes up 20 to 30 percent of a tree's biomass and is currently discarded in the papermaking process, it is an inexhaustible source, easing the pressure on dwindling lithium resources. Olle and Grzegorz then patented their two-square-centimeter prototype. However, they soon realized that the cathode design is only half the solution for a completely new battery concept. They also need to redesign the anode. A team of doctoral students is working on developing a complete concept. The vision is to have a fully renewable battery. In the meantime, they are testing a fully recyclable polymer known as polypyrrole, a 100% recyclable petroleum derivative that has been known to the industry for over three decades.
The opportunity
Grzegorz's creative spirit doesn't limit itself to the world of batteries. He sees multiple possibilities for utilizing residual lignin, demonstrating multiple revenue streams and benefits from a single discarded renewable material. He has successfully designed a chemical sensor made from pure lignin extracted from the same black liquor. This fast and inexpensive sensor measures blood glucose in diabetic patients. Their creative research also focuses on new insights into the plant immune system, opening up a vast multi-purpose platform for one of the planet's most abundant renewable resources, which remains untapped in our industrialized society and fails to generate the added value or jobs it could offer. Now that the first phase of product design has been successfully completed, it's time for some visionary entrepreneurs to embark on developing a completely new battery concept and bringing the sensors to market. The paper and pulp industry could even be the first to benefit from this at a time when consumption is decreasing and paper recycling is reaching its limits.
