Growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) increases the demand for critical minerals used in EV batteries and motors. The stability and reliability of supply chains for these materials are significant concerns because of the geographic concentration of supplies. While supply-side policies such as development of new sources are important, so is innovation in both recovering and processing minerals and in battery and magnet designs that affect mineral demands.
This issue brief considers questions related to innovation that affects supply chains for EV critical minerals and the policy challenges in scaling up nascent technologies for commercial deployment. It is motivated by a March 2024 webinar organized by Resources for the Future with experts from academia, the automotive industry, and the federal government, which included the CMI Deputy Director Rod Eggert, Colorado School of Mines.
The Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI), a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, funded development of EC-Leach, an innovative recycling technology developed by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory. This technology uses fewer chemical inputs and requires lower temperatures than conventional recycling methods to promote the recapture of value streams from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries.
See the full story: Digging Deep: Critical Mineral Supply Chains, Electric Vehicles, and the Role of Technological Innovation