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Substance flow analysis of lithium for sustainable management in mainland China: 2007–2014

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Highlights

  • We evaluate the anthropogenic cycle of lithium in China from 2007 to 2014.

  • Production of lithium increased quickly but heavily relied on the import of natural resources.

  • The anthropogenic stock of lithium raised not so fast as the loss of lithium.

  • The production of BEVs was not developed enough to affect the lithium flows in a large scale.

  • The recycling of lithium from lithium ion batteries should be promoted.

Abstract

Lithium as an energy metal has gained significance in a wide range of application that spread across many industry sectors, along with its key role in emerging electric vehicles. China is a key use and producer of lithium and related products. In order to draw an entire picture of the lithium cycle, this study attempts to quantify the flows, stocks, and loss of lithium in the anthropogenic cycle in China, from 2007 to 2014. Substance Flow Analysis is employed in this paper for data mining and compilation. The results illustrate that production and use increased greatly from 2007 to 2014, due to the fast increase of the lithium ion battery. China’s lithium industry still heavily relied on the import of natural lithium ores, where lithium exports were mainly in the form of lithium ion battery-powered products, including laptop computers, mobile phones and electric bicycles. The stocks of lithium increased gradually from 2007 to 2014, but the loss of lithium from direct use also increased and more quickly. Therefore, the lithium stock in society cannot provide meaningful quantities as the second source for lithium production. It is suggested that the lithium in batteries should be recovered, as most lithium inputs are dispersed back into the environment, while the lithium industry still relies on imported lithium resources in China.

Introduction

In recent years, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) have gained in popularity in China, playing a key role in strategies that support energy conservation and emission reduction. BEVs are expected to contribute greatly to a reduction in the use of fossil fuels use and Greenhouse Gas (GHGs) emissions, as there will be more and more electricity generated by renewable or clean energy sources. Along with the rapid development of BEVs, lithium, as the indispensable element in the power battery, is becoming more and more vital due to its unique characteristics in energy storage.

Several studies stated that, lithium resources were sufficient to meet the long-term, global demands of the BEV batteries and existing lithium-use industries until 2100 (Gruber et al., 2011). However, these studies also showed that lithium is a geographically scarce metal (Grosjean et al., 2012, Miedema and Moll, 2013); for example, 77.6% of global lithium resources were mined in Chile, Australia and Argentina in 2013 (USGS, 2015). In the EU, it has been proved that lithium will be a bottleneck (especially for the BEVs) for EU27 in the future (Miedema and Moll, 2013).

As China is one of world’s major lithium use countries, it is necessary to identify lithium stocks and flows in the economic and industrial system. The macro picture can help improve existing policies on highly efficient utilization and the potential lithium cycle. The lithium resource reserve in China is about 13.67% of the world (USGS, 2015), but the mining capacity is still under construction. Moreover, China is one of the largest Lithium Ion Battery (LIB) manufacturing countries in the world, so there are still a large quantity of lithium ores and brines imported to China.

Similar to the EU situation, the natural lithium resource reserve in China, added with even 100% recovered lithium from waste LIBs, still cannot fulfill the demands of lithium ion batteries in the long term until 2100 (Zeng and Li, 2013). However, due to more exploration for lithium in China, the lithium reserve increased to 3.5 million tons in 2014 (USGS, 2015), which may result in a different conclusion of the lithium supply in China. Moreover, the import and export of lithium and lithium-containing products make the situation more complicated. A large portion of lithium-containing products are exported from China, while lithium ores and lithium compounds are imported in recent years. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the actual lithium flows and stocks in greater detail in order to arrive at a complete picture of sustainable management of lithium in China.

Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) is used in this study for dynamic analysis of lithium stocks and flows in China from 2007 to 2014. The aim of this paper is to quantify the amount of lithium that entered, left, and accumulated in China’s anthroposphere, in order to see how the electric vehicle industry affected the flows and stocks of lithium until now. Lithium flows between the economic system and the environmental system, and the lithium stocks inside the economic system, were studied.

The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 defines the methodology, scope and system boundaries; Section 3 shows the major data sources and specific analysis settings; Section 4 shows and analyzes results of flows and stocks; in the last two sections, the main conclusion and the next step for improvement are discussed.

Section snippets

Substance flow analysis

SFA is a systematic analysis tool in the field of industrial ecology. With this method, the substance flows and stocks between the socioeconomic system and the environment, or within the socioeconomic system, in the specific region in a defined time range were identified and quantified (Lindqvist and von Malmborg, 2004). The results of SFA could produce the big picture for sustainable management of essential resources, solid waste, and hazardous materials management policies in cities (

Accounting method and data preparation

The accounting method in this section mainly refers to how the flows and stocks were calculated. According to the mass conservation law, the total input for each process and system should be equal to the output. There are four detailed ways for calculating flows and stocks of substance in this study: (1) calculated directly from the statistics, such as import and export flows; (2) calculated by combining statistics with coefficients, such as use flows for battery-powered products; (3) deduced

Main results of SFA

The lithium flows and stocks from 2007 to 2014 in China are shown in Fig. 3. From 2007 to 2014, 232,993 t of lithium carbon and 117,132 t of lithium hydroids were produced from lithium ores and brines in China, totally 63,602 t in terms of lithium. Due to the import and export of basic lithium compounds, 59,342 t lithium from the compounds and lithium metal was input to the domestic production of lithium products from 2007 to 2014, in which 82.7% went to the manufacture of key lithium products,

Discussion

This study analyzed lithium cycles from 2007 to 2014 in mainland China. The results indicated that lithium production and use increased greatly during these years, due to the speedy application of LIB in consumer electronics and electrical vehicles, including BEVs and electrical bicycles. The production of BEVs was not developed enough to affect the lithium flows on a large scale as planned. The lithium use share in the BEVs increased from 0.40% of the total lithium use in 2007 to 6.19% in

Conclusion

The lithium cycles, including the anthropogenic lithium stock, were studied in this paper from 2007 to 2014 in mainland China. The results showed continual growth of the anthropogenic stock in China from 2007 to 2014, but, without an effective waste product collection and recycling system, it has not become a supplement for the supply of lithium by 2014. Production of BEVs was not developed enough to affect the lithium flows on a large scale as planned. The lithium industry largely depended on

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 71303231, 71533005). This research was also supported financially by the Innovation Project of the State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology of China (SKLURE2013-1-01).

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