Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
'What has to be remembered is if Lithium does get too expensive then technology will move on to find alternative minerals for battery production.'
Hairy, I agree and this is something I have been looking into. From a lot of the chemistry/materials science reading I have been doing, it seems as though Lithium is the ideal chemical to have as an anode in terms of unsurpassed energy density in electrochemical reactions.
Multiple metal combinations have been tried for the cathode in the development of Li batteries, yet the common denominator is still Li in the anode. This is a v good summary article on the history and science behind Li batteries: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1557/mrs.2015.259 (This is a 2015 article and so is slightly out of date.)
I will defer to any material scientists, chemists or physicists on the BB, but from what I have read, scientists are researching other anode/cathode combinations, e.g. silicon materials. These combinations as viable commercial energy storage devices, have so far proved elusive.
It would appear that the trends for Li batteries for energy storage are increasing in the US compared to other elemental batteries (see page 11 here: https://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/electricity/batterystorage/pdf/battery_storage_2021.pdf).
The costs per unit of energy storage using Li have been studied and have reduced considerably over the last few decades. (see here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/EE/D1EE01313K ) This is a horribly scientific article but I recommend reading the 'Conclusions and Implications' paragraph at the end. The authors highlight the concern of technological 'lock-in' into Li at the expense of other modalities and I quote "...lithium-ion technologies could outcompete other technologies before they have the opportunity to advance sufficiently, precluding the development of potentially more cost-effective, environmentally beneficial, or resilient storage technologies. These concerns have focused attention on efforts to reduce the chance of premature lock-in by encouraging technological diversity." The authors then quote Li-air and Li-sulphur electrochemical cells, yet the magical chemical Li is still there and probably will be for at least a decade or two. Happy days!
China targets lithium trove near Everest as battery demand soars
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c2c31b32-94c2-11ec-9aec-82f0032d4cd3?shareToken=1d05f245f697578a75aaf53decb7fbaf
They seek it here, they seek it there, they seek it everywhere!
Just came across this article. There a need for ‘home grown’ oil!
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/The-US-Will-Be-A-Net-Oil-Importer-In-2022.html
I am a silent observer on this BB and I am very thankful to mike888/quant/suthy/FTH et al for all of the very informed posts. I am a LTH from CLP days and am at my target of 1m. I am now wondering whether to go higher, should funds allow. However I will be honest and say that FUD (particularly doubt) set in last week, i..e what if this concept doesn't fly. [I share fudge's sp targets of 'happy chap/over the moon and wow'.]
So, in the spirit of DYOR I went down to the local Blackwell's bookstore and to the computing section to answer questions about cryptography, AI and BTC algorithm. Once you get past the 'Mac for Dummies' section etc, I was astounded by the computer texts. (I am in Oxford and thus the shop caters for the uni academic computing department). 'Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies' was a particularly good book and opened my eyes more to the potential of blockchain, quantum computing, AI etc in an easier to digest format. My FUD was reduced considerably.I think having professors and PhD post docs on team QBT is truly amazing and I'm looking forward to what's coming.
Looking on line at the UK gov website https://www.gov.uk/patent-your-invention/decide-to-apply
it would appear that the process is at least 6 months till a 'patent pending' or 'patent applied for' status can be attached to the intellectual property. The full process to certification can take up to 4 years! (I hope not)