Lithium-Ion Battery Will Stay at Least 10 Years Before Alternative Technology Can Compete With Cost; Inventor Calls To Change Manufacturing, Mining, Recycling

The lithium-ion battery is not going anywhere anytime soon. However, something must be changed in terms of its production.

Lithium-Ion Battery Is Not Going Obsolete

Lithium-ion batteries won't be obsolete anytime soon. M. Stanley Whittingham, the Nobel laureate who created the first rechargeable lithium-ion battery five decades ago, spoke to the SLAC-Stanford Battery Research Center Launch Symposium guests on Thursday. The new company wants to fill gaps between businesses that develop, produce, and use massive energy storage devices.

Whittingham estimated that it would take at least five to 10 years before any alternative technologies can match lithium-ion technology in terms of price, Spectrum reported.

However, Whittingham worries about how the world manufactures and utilizes these energy storage devices, even if they will likely stay the standard for some time. His concerns include the manufacturing, mining, recycling, and safety of handling the batteries.

Lithium-Ion Battery Concerns

Whittingham raised several concerns about lithium-ion batteries. Among his concerns was the outdated manufacturing technology.

Manufacturing

Whittingham thinks it's absurd that manufacturing technology hasn't advanced in the last 30 years. He claims we need to lower the 60 to 80 kWh of electricity needed to build a single kWh battery. New manufacturing technology must be discovered that requires lesser energy.

Recycling

Technology advancements in recycling are another concern for Whittingham. He finds it encouraging that lithium-ion battery recycling facilities are being constructed worldwide. However, he wanted to ensure that those places were clean.

Mining

There is also room for improvement in the supply chain for the raw materials used to make batteries. Whittingham asserts that local supply chains are essential. We also need to consider clean energy and mining.

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Safety

Whittingham proposed replacing cobalt because some elements of a lithium-ion battery's traditional chemistry are intrinsically harmful. They must be engineered out of the device as soon as possible.

He added that they couldn't have cheap crap out there. Whittingham advocated for a federal law requiring Underwriters Laboratories or a comparative testing and certification agency to certify all lithium-ion battery items.

The potential of solid-state batteries is receiving a lot of attention these days, but Whittingham notes that some of the claims made for the technology are exaggerated; solid-state chemistries are not necessarily safer than liquid chemistries and carry their risks given that they contain significant amounts of lithium.

Potential Alternative For Lithium-Ion Batteries in the Future

Although Whittingham doesn't think a new alternative will be strong enough to compete with lithium-ion batteries anytime soon, there's already a potential alternative in development - oxygen-ion batteries!

In a previous report from Science Times, researchers from the Vienna University of Technology developed batteries better than lithium-ion in terms of sustainability. In addition, they can be made without rare elements and combustible materials, making them safer and an excellent solution for large energy storage systems.

They use ceramics for the oxygen-ion battery. According to Tobias Huber, the material offers many benefits and is highly adaptable.

But the best part of oxygen-ion batteries is their lifespan. Unlike lithium-ion batteries that tend to diminish their charging capacity over time, oxygen-ion batteries can be easily recharged since any oxygen lost through side reactions may be easily made up from the surrounding air. Will Locket of Medium called it a "game-changer" because they are "eco-friendly" and "immortal."