General Discussion Topics, page-124848

A very good article on future outlook and North America lithium. Save some worries for many on lithium ion battery alternatives and future demand.

“There’s lots of interest in sodium, but if you do technical work on sodium, make sure you do the economics at the same time, it’s not clear that sodium ion will be any less expensive, it may even be more expensive,” he said. “Because the energy density is one half so it’s going to be twice the size, twice the weight. The only advantage is can you take all the cobalt out and nickel out by using a manganese iron cathode.”

“There’s incentives for sodium but don’t expect sodium to come roaring and take out the field in the next two or three years.”

Whittingham said will be at least five or ten years out.

“No evidence today that solid state is any safer than today’s liquid electrolyte batteries, despite what you may read … 95% of everything you read in the popular press is hype.”

solid-state batteries

Regional supply chains:

The US should work with Canada to build a regional supply chain for batteries and has “everything it needs” to build cheaper lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, Whittingham said.

“We have lithium in this country, we have iron in this country, we have phosphorus in this country and we clearly have lots of oxygen. So we have everything we need in North America to make LFP.”

That will involve the US working with Canada on the extraction of raw materials for batteries, he added.

https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/nobel-laureate-stanley-whittingham-on-the-future-of-lithium-ion-batteries