By Grahame Elder
Before we start a quick recap. Last episode, the DRILL wrote about vaping and the proliferation of tobacco outlets. Subsequently the DRILL contacted local organisations and the Hornsby Shire Council, who recommended:
THAT Council write to the (NSW) Minister for Planning and Public Spaces requesting changes to planning controls to require the establishment of tobacconist and vape shops to require approval through the development application process. The Honourable Cr PHILIP RUDDOCK Mayor
And now to the topic: Are EVs really the Green future?
We need to see what eventuates, but there IS potential for change; personal and legislative.
Between Peter Dutton announcing 7 nuclear power plants, like it or not in your electorate, and the Chinese premier Li Qiang checking out the Fortescue Hydrogen Research Hub and the 51% Chinese owned Tranqi lithium production facility in WA last week, there’s a lot to think about for the Drill. This episode was stimulated by a friend (and petrol head) who told me that lithium-ion batteries were dirty to make, dirty to recycle and unless you used 100% clean energy to charge them, EVs had the same carbon footprint as their petrol equivalents. This couldn’t be true – could it?
So, I’ve spent the day sourcing documents to find the evidence that will either affirm the ‘green’ future of EVs – or reject it and send us back to a future with the comforting reverberation of deep throated exhausts.
To answer this conundrum there must be some penetrating questions:
- Where is lithium (Li) found, how is it mined and what else goes into a Li battery?
- What is the environmental and social impact of Li mining and battery production?
- What is Australia’s role in the Li cycle?
- Can batteries be cost effectively recycled; how are they currently disposed of?
- What legislative goals should we be promoting?
- Finale: Are the critics right – there is no green EV?
And to address these, we need background and granularity; so let’s amp this up!
THE BACKGROUND. Where it is found, how is it mined, what else goes into a battery?
As shown in this map from the 2021 British Geological Survey, Li is found in many countries, but there was a good reason for the premier of China, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, to visit Western Australia this week. Western Australia accounted for 49% of the world’s Li production in 2020, and is now even higher, followed by Chile (22%), China (17%) and Argentina (8%). In addition, Western Australia is the world’s largest producer of rare earth metals outside of China, and many of these elements are essential for electronics and Li battery production: in particular, cobalt, manganese and nickel, together with aluminium and copper used in the battery cathode, while graphite (not a metal) is typically used in the anode. The graph below shows where some of these minerals are found.
Mine production rather than processed products. (a) Lithium content of brine, spodumene, other hard rock or clay mine production. (b) Excludes China. Source: US Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries (Annual); Office of the Chief Economist, Resources and Energy Quarterly; and WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, Resource Data Files (Bi-Annual).
The earlier map also shows that Li occurs either within igneous crystalline rocks (such as spodumene) indicated as red circles, or as a suspension in underground reservoirs of brine, indicated by the blue circles. These so called ‘continental brine’ deposits often occur in arid landscapes, where the Li has dissolved from surrounding rock formations over thousands of years.
So, these 2 main Li sources result in quite different means of extraction. You can pump the underground brine to the surface and let it sit in evaporation ponds for months to years, until most of the water has evaporated off, followed by downstream processing, OR pulverise the rock, combine the crushed powder with chemicals such as sulfuric acid, then heat and filter the slurry to get a Li concentrate.
What is the environmental and social impact of Li mining and battery production?
Li extraction, particularly from pumped brine, uses vast amounts of water. The Thacker pass project in Nevada is expected to produce 60,000 tons of Li annually, but will also consume 1.7 billion gallons of water. In the Li triangle, an arid, Li rich Andes region straddling the borders of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia, the Argentinian Salar del Hombre Muerto project pumps about 170,000 gallons of water per hour. For every ton of lithium carbonate extracted from these aquifers in the Andes, about half a million gallons of water is evaporated off, lowering water tables. And because freshwater often sits on top of salty water, this has the potential to dry up the lakes, wetlands, springs, and rivers that flourish where underground water reaches the surface.
World lithium demand outlook: Calendar years
Meanwhile, the Indigenous people of the high Andes increasingly fear that the scarce water on which they rely for domestic use, to maintain their pastures and keep their livestock alive, is ironically being sacrificed in a global drive for green EVs to fight climate change!
https://e360.yale.edu/features/lithium-mining-water-andes-argentina
The method used in Western Australia of extracting Li from pulverised rock and then heating the slurry to 800-1000C also has its drawbacks, particularly if the energy used for these processes comes from fossil fuels. Pulverised rock extraction emits up to 17 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), while brine extraction is lower at around 2.8 tonnes CO2 per LCE. Together with the downstream manufacturing emissions, this means that the CO2 production from constructing a 1,100-pound EV battery can be around 70% more than the CO2 produced by constructing a traditional car! And 77% of the world’s batteries are manufactured in China, where coal is the primary energy source.
https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/is-lithium-mining-bad-for-the-environment
Africa, and particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has potential as a major Li source, but more importantly, it has another vital battery component – cobalt (Co). And the DRC alone accounts for around 70% of global Co output, half of which is used in EV battery production. There are large Co mining operations in the DRC, but between 15 and 30% is from artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) often associated with major infringements of human rights including child labour, unsafe working conditions and environmental degradation.
While many of the poor labour practices have focussed on these ASMs, larger Chinese companies, the Swiss company Glencore, and Eurasian Resources Group, a company governed by the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are also at fault.
These companies subcontract to smaller employers, so that if workers complain, there is no one to support them and thus they avoid any legal framework protecting workers.
https://greenrocks.substack.com/p/cobalt-congo-labor-workers-energy-climate
https://raid-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/report_road_to_ruin_evs_cobalt_workers_nov_2021.pdf
“We were working hard, without any breaks, for $2.5 a day. If you didn’t understand what the boss said to you, he would slap you in the face. If you had an accident, they would just fire you.” – Congolese worker
What is Australia’s role in the Li cycle?
Outside of Australia, Australian companies are heavily involved in the production of battery materials in Argentina, Chile, Canada, the USA and in the DRC. While these Australian companies may state they have good corporate governance, in Argentina for example, government and provincial authorities have taken a ‘hands-off’ approach to mining, giving companies freedom to organize both their own environmental assessments and community liaisons. In the DRC, the Manono Lithium and Tin Project, primarily owned by the Australian company AVZ Minerals, is considered the world’s largest hard rock lithium deposit. The company website states that ‘The Manono project includes comprehensive environmental impact assessments to ensure responsible mining practices. Efforts are made to minimize environmental degradation and engage with local communities to address social impacts.’ While this may be the case, the Australian government also has an ethical responsibility to ensure the governance of these projects. In April, Professor Susan Park, Professor of Global Governance from Sydney University, had some interesting comments on transparency and transnational initiatives that you can find on the ABC website if you are interested to learn more.
Can batteries be cost effectively recycled; how are they currently disposed of?
Currently Australia does not have a mature system for battery recycling, despite battery waste growing at around 20% annually. Only 10% of Australia’s lithium-ion battery waste was recycled in 2021, compared with 99% of waste from lead acid batteries. However, there are pilot programs. CSIRO projects focus on creating efficient, scalable recycling for battery materials,
wastehttps://publications.csiro.au/publications/publication/PIcsiro:EP208519
while, under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mandate, manufacturers and importers of batteries are responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, including end-of-life disposal and recycling, with companies required to set up take-back schemes. There is also the voluntary Battery Stewardship Scheme (BSS), funded by a levy on imported batteries. The BSS supports battery recycling programs and infrastructure.
Companies such as Tesla also show corporate responsibility; The Tesla website states ‘None of our scrapped lithium-ion batteries go to landfilling, and 100% are recycled.’
Finally, there are other battery technologies being developed in Australia and elsewhere, particularly sodium-ion batteries by companies such as SPARC, which is also developing high performance hard carbon anode materials from agricultural biowaste. While these technologies are less mature, they are also less energy intensive and more environmentally sustainable.
What legislative goals should we be promoting?
- The European union has conflict minerals legislation pertaining to the DRC, and companies sourcing cobalt, lithium and other minerals from conflict-affected or high-risk areas should follow the OECD Due Diligence Guidance to ensure they are not contributing to conflict or human rights abuses. Australia does not have legislation that directly mirrors these, although there are initiatives that align with the guideline principles. There are many Australian mining companies with international operations, and the Australian Democrats support the need for strong legislation that stops the trading of ‘conflict minerals’ and promotes and protects workers’ rights internationally. And considering that such companies as BHP were involved in the 2015 Fundao dam collapse and Brazil’s greatest ever environmental disaster, and that Rio Tinto was responsible for the May 2020 destruction of the Juucan Gorge caves, voluntary schemes are clearly inadequate to cut it. We need stronger heritage protection laws governing the behaviour of Australian companies both at home and internationally.
- Several lithium mining projects in Australia are integrating renewable energy sources into their operations to reduce their carbon footprint. For example, some lithium extraction sites are powered by on-site solar installations. The Australian Democrats would support incentivising green energy use in the Australian production of Li and other battery materials, by a system of carbon credits or tax offsets.
- The Australian Democrats support and would legislate to fund research to target 100% Li-ion battery retrieval and recycling within Australia. This would include improved access to recycling facilities, levies on manufacturers and / or rebates to consumers. The EU, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the USA all have, or are developing such regulatory frameworks, including the enforcement of battery collection and recycling by manufacturers. We should also actively support alternative battery technologies, such as sodium-ion battery R and D.
- Given Australia’s resources, we should encourage greater vertical integration of battery material production, processing and manufacturing. Companies from other, much smaller countries, such as Sweden’s Northvolt, currently ship Australian Li from Tianqu (that joint Chinese Australia facility the Chinese Premier was taken to see) to northern Sweden, for battery production for Volvo, VW and BMW!
Given our proximity to the Chinese, Japanese, South Korean and Indian markets, and recent free trade agreements, it would be foolish not to look at similar opportunities with vertical integration closer to home. Government has started to address this, with a number of initiatives that we should in general applaud, while questioning some specifics. These include the National Centre of Excellence for Clean Energy Skills, the Neighbourhood Battery Initiative, the Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre, the Powering Australia Industry Growth Centre and the recent Future Made in Australia initiatives. The battery life cycle was also discussed in the national Environmental Ministers Meeting (21st June 2024), from design to storage and disposal, with a draft Regulatory Impact Statement by December 2024. The Australian Democrats support the urgency of this commitment.
Finale: Are the critics right – there is no green EV?
Well yes and no – every EV currently comes with a carbon footprint and there are clearly considerable social and environmental hurdles in making and recycling batteries. But even an EV changed from a fossil-fuelled grid has a lower carbon cost than the best petrol-fuelled vehicles available today (around the equivalent of 4.6L petrol/100 km versus around 4.8L/100 km for a hybrid petrol-electric Prius). And an electric vehicle running on electricity from renewable energy is hugely cleaner.
A second major environmental benefit is that EV batteries could be used for energy grid stabilization, balancing oversupply and shortage when generation from renewables is reduced (for example at night). In fact, this week the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced funding to ‘Amber Electric’ to trial electric vehicle smart charging and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services with residential customers.
In summary – cautious optimism and a thumbs down to dirty petrol and diesel.
So – what’s next??
The DRILL reckons obesity is the bourgeoning challenge that’s about to eat up the national economy. But ‘exercise and eat less’ advice is not working. And yes, many Dems who like a Western Australian chardonnay and creamy cheese from the Adelaide Hills have been branded latte sipping socialists, but we still want to be fit and agile, and we don’t want the government telling us what to eat!
So, there’s the rub. Is it sticks or carrots that will build a healthier population, or do we just sit back and watch our waists and the nation’s health expenditure expand?
It’s all in the DRILL, coming soon.
Grahame Elder