- Cobalt has long been a vital component in lithium-ion batteries, but automakers are moving away from it due to its harmful effects on children and the environment, notably in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- The portable electronics industry (phones, tablets, and computers) utilizes significantly more cobalt than the automotive industry. An electric vehicle requires between 6 and 12 kilograms of cobalt every year, which equates to around 120,000 tonnes.
- Tesla paved the path for more stringent supply chain labor and less reliance on cobalt in the production of electric vehicle batteries. The company’s batteries contain less than 5% cobalt, and they’re currently working on building their own cobalt-free batteries.
- Lithium-iron-phosphate or nickel-iron-aluminum cathodes are two other options. Because electric vehicles do not require cobalt to function properly.
Is cobalt used in electric vehicles?
- The rising demand for electric vehicles greatly outstrips the rate of cobalt extraction. While the material has gained popularity as a result of its impact on battery life and longevity, it simply cannot be harvested at rates that can keep up with the present demand for EVS.
- Cobalt is a costly metal. The demand for electric vehicles has never been higher, but the difficulty and cost of collecting cobalt, along with controversies over mining practices, has led many electric vehicle makers to envision a future in which cobalt is completely removed from rechargeable batteries.
- The present extraction methods for obtaining cobalt have raised ethical concerns.
Is cobalt present in electric car batteries?
Lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from laptops to cell phones to electric cars, use cobalt as one of the major metals. Cobalt has long been a popular metal for batteries because it extends battery life and energy density, which in the case of electric vehicles means range, by keeping the battery structure stable while it is charged and discharged.
However, cobalt is one of the most expensive minerals in a battery, as it is normally produced as a byproduct of nickel and copper mining. According to BloombergNEF, while battery prices have dropped 89 percent between 2010 and 2020, they still account for around 30% of the total cost of an electric vehicle. Cobalt mining is also concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has been connected to human rights violations and child labor. Furthermore, with global EV sales set to soar, demand for basic battery elements such as cobalt is expected to surpass supply.
“When demand and availability for cobalt are compared, there is adequate raw material in the Earth’s crust, geologically speaking. The same goes for lithium, nickel, and manganese “LMC Automotive’s senior powertrain research analyst, Sam Adham, agrees. “It’s just that, like all other materials, the manufacturing and processing of that material is nowhere near what it needs to be to keep demand at its current level.”
These are some of the reasons why battery companies like Samsung and Panasonic, as well as automobile companies like Tesla and Volkswagen and a slew of start-ups, are seeking to eliminate the use of cobalt entirely. Watch the video to learn more about the technology that firms are using to reduce our reliance on cobalt-containing batteries, as well as how eliminating cobalt can reduce the cost of electric vehicles.
Following the release of this film, TexPower CEO Evan Erickson stated that the company is now building a plant that will be capable of producing hundreds of tons of material each year. In the taped interview, he claimed he misspoke.
What is the cobalt content of a battery?
The era of the electric vehicle has arrived. GM, the world’s largest automaker, stated earlier this year that it plans to stop selling gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2035. Audi, a German automaker, intends to discontinue making such vehicles by 2033. Similar route maps have been released by a number of other automotive corporations. Suddenly, major automakers’ hesitancy in electrifying their fleets has turned into a hasty retreat.
The electrification of personal mobility is gaining traction in ways that even its most enthusiastic supporters could not have predicted only a few years ago. Government mandates will hasten change in many countries. According to the BloombergNEF (BNEF) consultancy in London, half of global passenger-vehicle sales in 2035 will be electric, even without additional rules or laws.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in May that this vast industrial switch indicates a “transition from a fuel-intensive to a material-intensive energy system.” Hundreds of millions of automobiles with large batteries inside will hit the roads in the coming decades (see ‘Going electric’). Each of those batteries will contain tens of kg of yet-to-be-mined materials.
Materials scientists are tackling two major hurdles in preparation for a world dominated by electric vehicles. One is how to reduce the amount of scarce, expensive, or problematic metals in batteries that are mined at high environmental and societal costs. Another option is to improve battery recycling so that valuable metals in used automotive batteries may be utilised effectively. “Recycling will be a big part of it,” says Kwasi Ampofo, a mining engineer and BNEF’s lead metals and mining analyst.
Government incentives and the expectation of future regulations have prompted battery and carmakers to invest billions of dollars in lowering the costs of manufacturing and recycling electric-vehicle (EV) batteries. National research organizations have also established centers to investigate new ways to manufacture and recycle batteries. Because mining metals is still cheaper than recycling them in most cases, developing ways to recover valuable metals cheaply enough to compete with newly extracted ones is a significant goal. “Money is the largest talker,” says Jeffrey Spangenberger, a chemical engineer at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois, who oversees the ReCell lithium-ion battery recycling effort, which is financed by the US government.
In batteries, what will take the role of cobalt?
A variety of materials are used in lithium-ion batteries, including lithium, nickel, aluminum, iron, manganese, and cobalt. Cobalt is the most expensive of these metals. The average cost of cobalt has been higher than the cost of all other battery metals combined for the past four years.
“There are a lot of emotions that cobalt needs to be abolished or lowered to the bare minimum for mass electrification to happen,” says Chibueze Amanchukwu, a professor of molecular engineering at the University of Chicago.
Will there be a shortage of cobalt?
In 2016, a US-owned cobalt and copper mine in the Congo was sold to Chinese mining corporations sponsored by the Chinese government, causing widespread concern. Cobalt has long been a key metal in lithium batteries, which are at the heart of technologies ranging from electric vehicles to energy storage systems, all of which are critical to the future of renewable energy. As long as that is the case, whomever controls cobalt access will have the authority to limit or broaden the path to that future.
Because it optimizes energy density and extends battery life, cobalt is a significant component in lithium-ion batteries. However, cobalt production, like lithium production, is reaching its limits. The Democratic Republic of Congo supplies more than 70% of the world’s cobalt, and any country that makes electronics wants a piece of that pie. Forecasters believe that supply will not be able to keep up with demand by 2030, or perhaps as early as 2025, based on operational mines and projected demand.
Larger vehicles, such as electric buses and transport trucks, can need far more than a single lithium-ion EV battery pack, which contains more than 30 pounds (14 kg) of cobalt. Despite the fact that each battery will likely be used for many years (and may be used as stationary energy storage once it is no longer suitable for use in a vehicle), the transition to green transportation and the growing EV industry means that the amount of cobalt required may exceed what can be supplied.
Cobalt is a finite resource by nature: there is only so much of it in the world. Nonetheless, we’ve been acting as if we’ll always have as much as we want. Our attitude to commodities like cobalt will have to alter if we want to ensure that we have the materials we need to make the transition to a renewable energy future.
Cobalt is found not only in the batteries that power our renewable technologies, but also in consumer electronics. When our phones lose their charge, the coffee maker breaks down, or the washing machine can’t be fixed in a cost-effective manner, we have a few alternatives on what to do next. That equipment might either be discarded, sat in a cellar collecting dust, or recycled. The first two choices make it difficult to use cobalt effectively since the metal is out of commission, requiring more material to compensate.
Unfortunately, the first, and most dangerous, alternative is currently the most popular. According to the United Nations, e-waste volumes increased by 21% from 2014 to 2019, but only 17.4 percent of that material was recycled in 2019. The fact that e-waste recycling is difficult is part of the reason for the low quantity. Adhesives clog up small gadgets like phones and smart watches, which require tiny circuit boards and batteries. Metals that have been mixed together cannot be separated and reused.
Recycling becomes a realistic option if items are designed with their end-of-life in mind, or if manufacturers are responsible for recycling their own products, as some currently do. Metals, by their very nature, may be recycled, melted down, and rebuilt indefinitely without losing their properties. The world could develop a new, renewable source of cobalt in the long run if goods were built to make metals recovery practicable and systems were set up to enable it.
While more effective metals recycling isn’t a panacea for the world’s cobalt shortages, it can make a substantial difference. “Recycling would not eliminate the need for continued investment in new supply to meet climate goals,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) says, “but we estimate that by 2040, recycled quantities of copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt from spent batteries could reduce combined primary supply requirements for these minerals by around 10%.” And, as processes develop, we can work toward a genuinely circular economic model in which there is little to no demand for newly mined material.
In the meanwhile, we may take efforts to relieve the strain on cobalt supply.
Fewer cobalt-rich consumer products are purchased (and eventually discarded), freeing up cobalt to be used where it is most needed to establish a sustainable energy system, such as large-scale battery storage or electric vehicles. Because we use our devices for longer periods of time, we don’t need to replace them as frequently and because many cobalt-dependent electronic devices are purposefully designed to become obsolete after a short period of time, manufacturers must pull their weight and start producing long-lasting products.
Cobalt rationing is also influenced by design. Manufacturers of electric vehicles, such as GM, are seeking to reduce cobalt consumption in favor of other materials. Tesla indicated in 2020 that it would switch to lithium iron phosphate batteries in its automobiles, eliminating cobalt entirely (although, given that lithium itself is also experiencing shortages, this strategy will also need to work in tandem with efficient e-waste recycling to be effective). Customers who purchase electric vehicles without (or with less) cobalt can contribute to the continued push to electrify our transportation, allowing more EVs to be created more quickly.
Cobalt recycling is a critical step toward a clean, sustainable energy future, as well as a circular economic model that can free the energy industry from international competition, shortages, and price swings. If we continue to rely on cobalt, our renewable energy future may resemble the past fossil fuel model, which was reliant on a few sources of production and harmful to the environment. This model can be changed by establishing systems that utilise resources without producing waste.