{"id":44189,"date":"2024-02-22T10:22:42","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T10:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=44189"},"modified":"2024-02-22T10:22:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T10:22:42","slug":"the-power-behind-sustainable-lithium-production-processing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/the-power-behind-sustainable-lithium-production-processing\/44189\/","title":{"rendered":"The power behind sustainable lithium production and processing"},"content":{"rendered":"
Lithium<\/a> has become one of the world\u2019s most precious commodities in just a few decades. It is a critical component in everything from electric vehicles<\/a> (EVs) to smartphones \u2013 and a driving force behind the global energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind.<\/p>\n Until the mid-2010s, for most minerals, the energy sector represented a small part of total demand. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in a scenario that meets the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement (the IEA Sustainable Development Scenario), clean energy technologies\u2019 share of total lithium demand increases over the next two decades to almost 90%. EVs and battery storage have already displaced consumer electronics to become the largest applications for the metal.<\/p>\n This shift has profound economic and geopolitical implications around price volatility and security of supply, not to mention reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) during lithium production.<\/p>\n Wind farms and EVs often require more minerals to build than their fossil fuel based counterparts. A typical electric car requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car, and an onshore wind plant needs nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired plant. Since 2010, the average amount of minerals required for a new unit of power generation capacity has risen by 50%.<\/p>\n In addition, as intermittent energy sources like solar PV and wind continue to grow their share in the overall energy mix, so the need to supply mines with continuous clean electricity using innovations such as power microgrids and battery energy storage systems (BESS) becomes ever more critical.<\/p>\n This article will discuss what this means for mine operators and specialist technology companies that design automation and electrification technologies. Through industry collaborations and contracts, these companies help to optimise lithium production and profitability, avoid GHG emissions, downtime and costs, and facilitate a new approach to power provision that relies on a holistic view of the entire mine energy ecosystem.<\/p>\n To improve methods of lithium extraction, ABB believes collaboration with technology providers, OEMs and mine operators at the earliest possible stage in the mine life cycle is the best way to de-risk process plant development, improve efficiency, reduce energy use and emissions, and save on capital expenditure and operating expenditure (OPEX).<\/p>\n The company then uses electrification and automation technologies, and those of its partners, to deliver a solution architecture across the entire value chain, encompassing the hardware and software stack, visualisation and analytics tools, and operations: Electrification, maintenance, processing and sustainability.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take, as an example, the Ioneer Ltd. lithium-boron deposit being developed at the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada, US, where ABB is managing process automation, power management and electrical distribution for our Australian-listed customer. ABB is providing its integrated automation and electrification solutions, including site services, to drive optimisation and digital transformation of the mine\u2019s processing plants from the outset.<\/p>\n The site, with the only known lithium-boron deposit in North America and one of only two such deposits in the world, is considered to be globally significant. It requires specific systems engineering and optimisation technologies and expertise. ABB\u2019s package includes plant-wide process automation and instrumentation systems for the power generation, acid, and lithium-boron processing plants. ABB\u2019s involvement supports ioneer\u2019s move towards long-life, cost-effective sources of lithium and boron that are vital for the global energy transition.<\/p>\n This holistic approach, whereby a single vendor provides a portfolio of solutions \u2013 from the steam turbine generator and medium and low-voltage electrical distribution to power management and process automation \u2013 offers the client an overview of the entire ecosystem rather than separate automation, electrification and instrumentation packages from multiple technology suppliers.<\/p>\nDe-risking and optimising lithium production<\/h3>\n