Lithium Might Hold the Key to our Clean Energy Future, but Will this Star Metal Fully Deliver on its Green Potential?

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-281
Author(s):  
Gabriela QUIJANO
Keyword(s):  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Lithium Ion ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
North West ◽  
Global Demand ◽  
Green Potential ◽  
Phase Out ◽  
North Western

Salinas Grandes is a vast salt flat in the high-altitude Puna region of Salta and Jujuy, two north-western provinces of Argentina. It is situated in one of the world’s driest regions, with an extremely fragile ecosystem. Salinas Grandes is so iconic and beautiful that Argentinians voted it amongst the country’s top seven natural wonders in May 2019.1 In addition to its beauty, this stunning desert of salt also holds one of the largest reserves of lithium in the world. Lithium is a light and versatile metal used to produce, among other things, the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EV). As global efforts to phase out fossil fuels from our transport systems and adopt clean energy alternatives increase, lithium is becoming increasingly critical. It is no wonder, therefore, that industry has coined it the ‘white gold’.2 Salinas Grandes is only one of many salt lakes in North West Argentina which, together with Bolivia and Chile, form what is known as the ‘lithium triangle’. It is estimated that these three countries alone account for more than half of the world’s lithium.3 Global demand for lithium to produce EV is expected to grow rapidly over the coming decade. To meet this demand, the lithium industry will require significant investment to ramp up additional supply.4 As a result, all eyes have turned to the ‘lithium triangle’ and investment in the region has soared in recent years.5 For the three developing countries, this represents a unique opportunity to attract much-needed foreign investment and boost economic growth.6

scholarly journals Biomass Availability in Europe as an Alternative Fuel for Full Conversion of Lignite Power Plants: A Critical Review

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 3390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasiliki Tzelepi ◽  
Myrto Zeneli ◽  
Dimitrios-Sotirios Kourkoumpas ◽  
Emmanouil Karampinis ◽  
Antonios Gypakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Carbon Neutrality ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Biomass Availability ◽  
Phase Out ◽  
Full Conversion ◽  
The Eu

Biomass has been demonstrated as a capable source of energy to fulfill the increasing demand for clean energy sources which could last a long time. Replacing fossil fuels with biomass-based ones can potentially lead to a reduction of carbon emissions, which is the main target of the EU climate strategy. Based on RED II (revised Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001/EU) and the European Green Deal, biomass is a promising energy source for achieving carbon neutrality in the future. However, the sustainable potential of biomass resources in the forthcoming decades is still a matter of question. This review aims at estimating the availability of biomass for energy reasons in the EU, and to evaluate its potential to meet the coal power plant capacity of the main lignite-producer countries, including Germany, Poland and Greece. Plants in line with the sustainability criteria of RED II have been selected for the preliminary estimations concerning their full conversion to the biomass power concept. Furthermore, the various barriers to biomass utilization are highlighted, such as the stranded asset risk of a future coal phase-out scenario, biomass supply chain challenges, biomass availability in main lignite-producer EU countries, the existing full conversion technologies, and biomass cost. A variety of challenges in the scenario of lignite substitution with biomass in a plant are investigated in a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. Technological risks and issues should be tackled in order to achieve the coal phase-out EU goal, mainly with regard to the supply chain of biomass. In this direction, the development of logistics centers for the centralized handling of biomass is strongly recommended.

scholarly journals India’s Strategy to Procure Lithium to be a Leading Lithium-Ion Battery Manufacturer

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 143-148
Author(s):  
Shubham Gandhi ◽  
Drumil Newaskar ◽  
Rohan Apte ◽  
Preet Aligave
Keyword(s):  
Lithium Ion Batteries ◽  
Lithium Ion Battery ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Mineral Exploration ◽  
Lithium Ion ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Solar Panels ◽  
Electrical Vehicle

Lithium is one of the foremost valuable metal which is widely used for manufacturing batteries and also has other uses in solar panels, ceramics, glasses and pharmaceuticals. Lithium is third most abundant element after hydrogen and helium but the most lithium deposits are only in Bolivia (21 million tons), Argentina (17 million tons), Chile (9 million tons), Australia (6.8 million tons), China (4.5 million tons). Bolivia, Argentina, Chile forms so called lithium triangle. Due to depleting reserves of fossil fuels and its harmful impact on the environment has forced the globe to shift to Lithium-ion batteries which is much eco-friendlier alternative. India’s push for electric vehicles (EV) may cause a considerable change in its energy security priorities, with securing lithium supplies, a key material for creating batteries, becoming as important as buying oil and gas fields overseas. India doesn't have enough lithium reserves for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. The majority electric vehicles within the country run on imported batteries, mostly from China. At present a lithium-ion battery accounts for 40% of the overall cost of an electrical vehicle. Khanij Bidesh Pvt Ltd is a venture firm of three central public sector enterprises namely National Aluminum Company (Nalco), Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL), Mineral Exploration Company Ltd (MECL). The KABIL would do identification, acquisition, exploration, development, mining and processing of strategic minerals overseas for commercial use and meeting country’s requirement of those minerals. The mission is to not allow India to fall in a very vulnerable position with a probable threat of supply squeeze as went on within the case of petroleum, with India being the world’s third largest oil importer and to amass cobalt and lithium mines in addition on get into purchase agreements of those minerals. This may help in achieving resource security with regard to strategic minerals.

scholarly journals How to Use Hydrogen in a New Strategy to Mitigate Urban Air Pollution and Preserve Human Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 1007-1015
Author(s):  
Louiza Haddad ◽  
Zeroual Aouachria ◽  
Djamel Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Energy Source ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Urban Air Pollution ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Traffic Density ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
Clean Energy Source

If transport is an essential means for the development of the economy, society and its mobility, it has the drawback of leading to significant atmospheric pollution. As traffic density is very high in large cities, air pollution is amplified by the various means of transport resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels. Urban air pollution is mainly caused by vehicles generating emissions harmful to human health. Our objective of this work is to analyze a strategy to eliminate or reduce the emission of these pollutants (NOx, CO, CO2) during combustion. This strategy aims to explore a clean energy source alternative to fossil fuels. This approach consists of completely replacing the internal combustion scalar with the engine powered by fuel cells using hydrogen. This motivates decision makers to choose hydrogen as an alternative fuel to protect the urban environment and the health human from air pollution. This study shows that it is possible to perfectly mitigate pollutants from urban transport systems by using a PEMFC as an alternative clean energy source. Analyze a strategy to eliminate or reduce the emissions of these pollutants (NOx, CO, CO2) during the combustion of full fossil fuel in vehicle engines. This strategy aims to exploit the energy vector represented by hydrogen in order to save human life in more populated areas and protect the environment. The pressure, temperature and concentration of each species (O2, H2 and H2O) are obtained from the resolution of the electrochemical model coupled to the dynamic model, which we do not present here.

Contribution to Multi-Energy Flow Management for Building Energy Hub

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Mohamed El Khaili ◽  
Redouane Marhoum ◽  
Chaimaa Fouhad ◽  
Hassan Ouajji
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Energy Flow ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Flow Management ◽  
Fossil Energy ◽  
Energy Hub ◽  
Global Demand

Global demand for primary fossil energy continues to increase. However, the production of energy from fossil fuels, in addition to depleting available reserves, releases millions of tons of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) into the atmosphere. Thus, it is obvious that the high concentration of GHGs in the air disrupts the natural greenhouse effect and consequently causes global warming. The implementation of action plans aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions has led all countries to use clean energy sources (sun, earth, wind) called renewable energies and also to rationalize the use of energies whether based on fossil fuels or renewable. Our paper presents a modeling of the demand and its management to ensure an optimization of the energy consumption and the reduction of its bill

Energy After COVID

2020 ◽  
Vol 119 (820) ◽  
pp. 317-322
Author(s):  
Michael T. Klare
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Peak Oil ◽  
Business Travel ◽  
Reduce Energy Consumption ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Energy Companies

By transforming patterns of travel and work around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the transition to renewable energy and the decline of fossil fuels. Lockdowns brought car commuting and plane travel to a near halt, and the mass experiment in which white-collar employees have been working from home may permanently reduce energy consumption for business travel. Renewable energy and electric vehicles were already gaining market share before the pandemic. Under pressure from investors, major energy companies have started writing off fossil fuel reserves as stranded assets that are no longer worth the cost of extracting. These shifts may indicate that “peak oil demand” has arrived earlier than expected.

Renewable energy selection based on a new entropy and dissimilarity measure on an interval-valued neutrosophic set

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
ShuoYan Chou ◽  
Truong ThiThuy Duong ◽  
Nguyen Xuan Thao
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Membership Function ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Multiple Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Dissimilarity Measure ◽  
Neutrosophic Set ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
And Performance

Energy plays a central part in economic development, yet alongside fossil fuels bring vast environmental impact. In recent years, renewable energy has gradually become a viable source for clean energy to alleviate and decouple with a negative connotation. Different types of renewable energy are not without trade-offs beyond costs and performance. Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) has become one of the most prominent tools in making decisions with multiple conflicting criteria existing in many complex real-world problems. Information obtained for decision making may be ambiguous or uncertain. Neutrosophic is an extension of fuzzy set types with three membership functions: truth membership function, falsity membership function and indeterminacy membership function. It is a useful tool when dealing with uncertainty issues. Entropy measures the uncertainty of information under neutrosophic circumstances which can be used to identify the weights of criteria in MCDM model. Meanwhile, the dissimilarity measure is useful in dealing with the ranking of alternatives in term of distance. This article proposes to build a new entropy and dissimilarity measure as well as to construct a novel MCDM model based on them to improve the inclusiveness of the perspectives for decision making. In this paper, we also give out a case study of using this model through the process of a renewable energy selection scenario in Taiwan performed and assessed.

scholarly journals Advances of 2nd Life Applications for Lithium Ion Batteries from Electric Vehicles Based on Energy Demand

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5726
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Wewer ◽  
Pinar Bilge ◽  
Franz Dietrich
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Lithium Ion Batteries ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Lithium Ion ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Impact

Electromobility is a new approach to the reduction of CO2 emissions and the deceleration of global warming. Its environmental impacts are often compared to traditional mobility solutions based on gasoline or diesel engines. The comparison pertains mostly to the single life cycle of a battery. The impact of multiple life cycles remains an important, and yet unanswered, question. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate advances of 2nd life applications for lithium ion batteries from electric vehicles based on their energy demand. Therefore, it highlights the limitations of a conventional life cycle analysis (LCA) and presents a supplementary method of analysis by providing the design and results of a meta study on the environmental impact of lithium ion batteries. The study focuses on energy demand, and investigates its total impact for different cases considering 2nd life applications such as (C1) material recycling, (C2) repurposing and (C3) reuse. Required reprocessing methods such as remanufacturing of batteries lie at the basis of these 2nd life applications. Batteries are used in their 2nd lives for stationary energy storage (C2, repurpose) and electric vehicles (C3, reuse). The study results confirm that both of these 2nd life applications require less energy than the recycling of batteries at the end of their first life and the production of new batteries. The paper concludes by identifying future research areas in order to generate precise forecasts for 2nd life applications and their industrial dissemination.

scholarly journals A Review on Electric Vehicles: Technologies and Challenges

Smart Cities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 372-404
Author(s):  
Julio A. Sanguesa ◽  
Vicente Torres-Sanz ◽  
Piedad Garrido ◽  
Francisco J. Martinez ◽  
Johann M. Marquez-Barja
Keyword(s):  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Lithium Ion ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Market Situation ◽  
Battery Technology ◽  
Battery Energy ◽  
New Research ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Technology Trends

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are gaining momentum due to several factors, including the price reduction as well as the climate and environmental awareness. This paper reviews the advances of EVs regarding battery technology trends, charging methods, as well as new research challenges and open opportunities. More specifically, an analysis of the worldwide market situation of EVs and their future prospects is carried out. Given that one of the fundamental aspects in EVs is the battery, the paper presents a thorough review of the battery technologies—from the Lead-acid batteries to the Lithium-ion. Moreover, we review the different standards that are available for EVs charging process, as well as the power control and battery energy management proposals. Finally, we conclude our work by presenting our vision about what is expected in the near future within this field, as well as the research aspects that are still open for both industry and academic communities.

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