Interesting comment from the Times. Still a lot of conjecture on this acid leach process
For that matter, when policy people and the more optimistic auto manufacturers speak of reducing European dependence on the DRC and those cobalt-mining children, they have in mind increasing the proportion of nickel in EV batteries.
Nickel is a problem. Most nickel we have used for the past century comes from high-grade nickel sulphide deposits. It is not technologically challenging to refine those ores to the high purity necessary for battery manufacturing.
Readily mined nickel sulphide deposits are being depleted, however, and over the next decade we will become dependent on the more common lateritic ore deposits. These are relatively easy to refine into low-purity grades, say for stainless-steel kitchenware.
To make battery-grade nickel from lateritic ore, though, miners hope to use a tricky process called high pressure acid leaching (HPAL). If you do not do things just right, you have sulphuric acid under high pressure coming out of the machine. Try not to be around when that happens. Did I mention the process is energy intensive? A Russian nickel refining engineer refers to the HPAL manufacturing complex as “the Bermuda Triangle of death”.
The good news from the point of view of European pro-EV environmentalists is that HPAL nickel will be produced, when the process is perfected, in places such as Indonesia. The bad news is that the Indonesians are increasingly bothered by acidic mine waste and are becoming even less tolerant of foreign mining companies.
The dependence on materials imports from difficult countries is bad enough. On top of that, an EV-centric European auto industry will be dependent on key foreign technologies if it is to meet its production goals.
Most European vehicle manufacturers use Asian battery cell technologies, though they can handle the assembly of cells into battery packs. Yes, the foreign partner transfers the technology for the current generation of battery cells.
However, while the European manufacturer grapples with a rapid, policy-driven production ramp, the Asian battery cell partner is leaping into the following generation.
There is a precedent. Korean companies took 20 years to move from production based on Japanese battery technology to producing their own designs. For now, battery manufacture requires production art, which can only be acquired with experience.
It would be better to take more time to develop the science of how batteries work. That would require years of work with sophisticated equipment, and the policy requirement is for a rapid switch from fossil fuel engines. In any event, Europe and the rest of the world will depend on diesel power for large trucks for the foreseeable future.
The politics, the supply-chain difficulties and the requirement for better science all suggest that the European battery push is too frenetic to work well.
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