Will IBM's seawater battery disrupt the lithium battery industry?

The new energy vehicle industry has truly entered a turbulent "spring"!

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has put the entire automotive industry, including new energy vehicles, at great risk of declining production and sales. Under the "new infrastructure" and other active rescue measures proposed by the state, the construction of new energy charging piles has also been highlighted. Recently, the State Council's executive meeting decided to extend the new energy vehicle purchase subsidy and purchase tax exemption policy for 2 years. This is undoubtedly another shot in the arm for new energy vehicle companies.

However, subsidies can only prolong life. Whether the automakers can survive this severe test of the epidemic depends on their ability to save themselves.

Even without the epidemic, 2020 would have been a turning point for the new energy vehicle industry. In particular, in the field of power batteries for new energy vehicles, a dramatic change in technology is taking place.

The "blade battery" that BYD publicly revealed at the beginning of the year has finally come to fruition. On March 29, BYD held a press conference for the blade battery, which is expected to be officially launched in June.

As a new generation of lithium iron phosphate technology, blade batteries are seen as a killer innovation to subvert the popular ternary lithium battery. The technological breakthrough and cost reduction brought by blade batteries will also force the overall price of ternary lithium battery products to drop. The reshuffle of the power battery industry is inevitable, but it is definitely good news for people who buy new energy vehicles.

At the CES2020 exhibition at the beginning of the year, IBM released news about its technological achievement of "making batteries from seawater", which added a bit of "disruption" to this turbulent industrial transformation drama.

Perhaps because there was no physical display, IBM only announced that it would continue research and development with Mercedes-Benz's parent company, so it did not attract much attention in the industry.

However, if you look closely, you will find that many details are still worth savoring, including three "new materials" extracted from seawater minerals, almost perfect performance that surpasses all lithium batteries, and the use of AI algorithms and quantum computing for research and development...

This makes us wonder: Is seawater battery going to become the "chosen one" in the next round of new energy batteries?

I have to admit, seawater battery, you have successfully attracted our attention.

Lithium batteries are not as good as they seem.

Before talking about seawater batteries, we must first re-understand lithium batteries, this familiar yet strange "friend".

I wonder if you are aware that almost all rechargeable toys and electronic devices, from our smartphones, computers, and tablets to electric bicycles and electric cars, use lithium batteries for battery life. It can be said that lithium batteries have become an indispensable element of our lives.

However, have you ever thought about these questions? Where do these lithium metal materials come from? Do lithium batteries have any impact on the environment? How to deal with lithium batteries after these electronic products are used up?

Compared with chemical fuels, lithium batteries are being seen as a mature technology application for clean energy, especially for a large energy-consuming country like my country that is heavily dependent on coal and oil.

But there is still a big problem here. Lithium batteries are just a type of energy storage technology, and the electricity they store still comes from the existing power grid. If the power source of a power plant is not from clean energy (hydropower, wind power, nuclear power, etc.), but is still thermal power, it is actually just a change in the form of emissions. However, for replacing strategic energy sources such as oil (and its refined fuel), lithium batteries have made an indispensable contribution to the power batteries of new energy vehicles.

So, does the source of lithium battery materials itself meet the original meaning of "clean energy"? I'm afraid not.

At present, the world's main lithium metal raw materials are extracted from salt water rich in magnesium and potassium through saline-alkali underground. Under the thick salt layer of the Andes Plateau in South America (where the Uyuni Salt Flats are located), more than half of the world's lithium metal deposits are stored, which also provides half of the world's lithium production.

The filtration and purification of lithium salts actually requires a large amount of water resources. For the extremely arid South American plateau, lithium mines occupy a large amount of groundwater resources. Even in areas with relatively abundant water resources, wastewater from lithium mines containing toxic chemicals will re-infiltrate into the domestic water system, affecting groundwater, agricultural irrigation, and drinking water resources for humans and livestock.

For lithium batteries, lithium is not a powerful player, either in terms of reserves or hazards. Nickel and cobalt can have a greater impact on the development of the power battery industry, especially cobalt, which has a huge environmental cost. First, this metal is very concentrated in a few areas in Central Africa, and the monopoly cost has caused a surge in prices; second, cobalt is extremely toxic, and the backward local manual mining has caused great harm to the local people.

When lithium batteries reach the end of their life in cars and electronic devices, they are difficult to reuse. The vast majority of lithium batteries will end up in landfills, where these metal elements will return to the natural environment, posing a long-term threat to our living environment.

Even if we are indifferent to the direct pollution from lithium metal and heavy metal mining areas such as nickel, cobalt and manganese, the long-term threat of lithium batteries to our lives and health in the future needs to be considered as early as possible.

So, if there are new battery materials to replace lithium batteries containing heavy metals such as cobalt, manganese and nickel, it will naturally become a great technological advancement that benefits mankind.

Will the mission of technological advancement fall on "seawater batteries"?

From the laboratory to commercial use: the implementation challenges of seawater batteries

Strictly speaking, seawater batteries in a broad sense appeared as early as the 1990s. In the natural environment, no environment can be used as a better electrolyte material than the ocean environment, that is, seawater.

The conductivity of seawater salt solution containing about 3.5% NaCl meets the basic requirements of battery electrolytes. Therefore, from the advantage, seawater batteries can have almost inexhaustible electrolyte materials; conversely, this also becomes a limitation, that is, seawater batteries can only be used in marine environments.

For example, low-power metal corrosion seawater batteries can provide power support for small ocean detection devices, while high-power power seawater batteries can provide power for underwater weapons and equipment (such as torpedoes).

This type of seawater battery is used as a power generation device itself, but seawater batteries that can leave the marine environment and have both energy storage and power generation functions obviously have broader commercial value.

In 2009, seawater batteries with energy storage functions were invented. AHI batteries were invented by Aquion Energy, a US battery and energy storage system developer. AHI batteries are made of seawater and abundant sodium and manganese. Because they do not contain heavy metals and toxic chemicals, are non-flammable and non-explosive, the company calls them "seawater batteries." This type of battery is inexpensive, costing only about $300 per kilowatt-hour, less than one-third of the cost of lithium-ion batteries.

AHI batteries were put into mass production around 2015, mainly used for energy storage in the field of solar photovoltaic power generation. However, in early 2017, it was declared bankrupt because it could not obtain a new round of financing. In July of the same year, Aquion resumed operations and is currently trying to establish cooperation with some power grids in China. Due to external constraints such as its own cost issues and the decline in lithium battery prices, it is not easy for seawater batteries to gain a foothold in the highly competitive energy field.

In 2017, the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea also used seawater to develop a new type of energy storage battery. This seawater battery will use sodium for energy storage and power generation, so it has a cost advantage over lithium batteries. At that time, it was planned to build a 10Wh seawater battery pack in 2018. However, judging from the current progress, the Korean research team's new battery energy storage system (ESS) using Na ions as the negative electrode material is still under testing and is still some distance away from real commercial use.

So, what is the current status of IBM’s latest seawater battery technology that was recently announced?

First of all, IBM said that the new battery is made of three proprietary materials that have never been recorded before, and they can all be extracted from seawater and do not contain heavy metals. However, perhaps for the sake of technical confidentiality, IBM did not disclose the composition of the three materials.

The second outstanding performance of the new battery is its fast charging speed. It is said that it can complete 80% of the charge in 5 minutes. If the test data is true, it can greatly alleviate the anxiety of waiting time for power battery charging.