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Lithium is not rare. It is also extracted from dirt and brine. Compare copper, lithium and nitrogen on this chart (abundance and annual production): https://e

by hedora 2y ago

Lithium is not rare. It is also extracted from dirt and brine. Compare copper, lithium and nitrogen on this chart (abundance and annual production): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth's_crust https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Ear... The cost difference (which is only 4x vs aluminum, apparently) is due to a combination of increased demand (not enough production capacity) and probably the amount of energy/environmental impact of the two processes (you have to go through a lot less ore/brine to get the aluminum). Also, aluminum benefits from a robust recycling infrastructure that hasn’t come online for lithium yet.

zdragnar 2y ago
Aluminum's recycling infrastructure is based entirely on reusing essentially raw aluminum, and only exists because bauxite is so expensive to smelt without access to dedicated hydroelectric dams. Recycling lithium in the form of extracting from batteries produces a significant amount of chemical waste, meaning that the cost savings of recycling is significantly less when compared with the difference between smelting and recycling aluminum.
adrian_b 2y ago
Lithium is enriched in the upper crust of the Earth about 10 times over its average abundance, which makes it appear more abundant. Even so, despite the enrichment it remains about 500 times less abundant than aluminum (in atom numbers, which matter for batteries; in weight the lighter lithium would appear even less abundant). Moreover, the lower concentration of lithium in typical lithium ores means that for mining equal amounts of lithium and aluminum the environmental effects of mining lithium would be much worse, because more rocks are disturbed and more waste is produced. So there is no doubt that replacing lithium with aluminum for large-scale energy storage is a more sustainable option.
- dangrossman 2y ago
  About 40% of lithium is "mined" from brine rather than hard rock sources, at least. Much less destructive and less carbon intensive.

by hedora 2y ago

zdragnar 2y ago

Aluminum's recycling infrastructure is based entirely on reusing essentially raw aluminum, and only exists because bauxite is so expensive to smelt without access to dedicated hydroelectric dams. Recycling lithium in the form of extracting from batteries produces a significant amount of chemical waste, meaning that the cost savings of recycling is significantly less when compared with the difference between smelting and recycling aluminum.

adrian_b 2y ago

Lithium is enriched in the upper crust of the Earth about 10 times over its average abundance, which makes it appear more abundant. Even so, despite the enrichment it remains about 500 times less abundant than aluminum (in atom numbers, which matter for batteries; in weight the lighter lithium would appear even less abundant). Moreover, the lower concentration of lithium in typical lithium ores means that for mining equal amounts of lithium and aluminum the environmental effects of mining lithium would be much worse, because more rocks are disturbed and more waste is produced. So there is no doubt that replacing lithium with aluminum for large-scale energy storage is a more sustainable option.

dangrossman 2y ago
About 40% of lithium is "mined" from brine rather than hard rock sources, at least. Much less destructive and less carbon intensive.