According to data provided by Technavio, the global lithium-ion battery market is expected to reach USD 81.65 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of over 11%. The increased usage of lithium is due to rising demand for batteries to power everyday portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles (EVs). Earlier this week Bloomberg reported that Volkswagen AG, the world’s largest carmaker, secured 20 billion euros ($25 billion) in battery supplies to reinforce its strong investment in EVs. The move is expected to put more pressure on Tesla Inc. as it copes with production issues for their mainstream Model 3. According to the report Volkswagen plans to equip 16 factories to produce electric vehicles by the end of 2022, compared to three factories currently. Additionally, Volkswagen expects to manufacture 3 million cars a year by 2025, an ambitious goal that is backstopped by deals with battery suppliers such as Samsung, LG Chem Ltd. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. for in Europe and China. Millennial Lithium Corp. (OTC: MLNLF), Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE: SQM), Lithium Americas Corp. (NYSE: LAC), Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

A recent report published by Industrial Minerals is showing that the increasing popularity of EV’s has translated into a record demand for lithium. Chinese battery-grade lithium carbonate prices have risen since the lunar New Year to almost record highs. The spot price for battery-grade lithium carbonate (min 99.5% Li2CO3) increased to 150,000-160,000 yuan ($23,676–$25,254) per ton. China’s appetite for lithium is evident as more acquisitions of lithium producers continue to take place. Recently TSX.v listed Canadian company Lithium X Energy Corp completed a plan of arrangement with Nextview New Energy Lion Hong Kong Limited, according to which NextView has agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares and warrants of Lithium X for $2.61.

Although the technology was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century, the first lithium batteries didn’t make it to market until the 70s, and it was a series of breakthroughs in the early 80s that cemented it as the market leading product it is today.

Lithium (and cobalt / graphite / nickel / manganese) cells replaced lead acid as the foremost battery chemistry simply because lithium has the lightest weight, highest voltage, and greatest energy density of all metals (why is a bubble round?); nevertheless, its relative scarcity and recent price escalation has some manufacturers shopping for alternatives.

The expansion of energy storage capacity is undoubtedly a societal necessity for the foreseeable future, but with extensive R&D in this area being a constant force for change, there is no reason to expect a single type of device to dominate the market indefinitely.

On March 7th, researchers at RMIT University in Australia announced that they had cracked a new type of battery chemistry that they have termed the “Proton Battery”, which rivals the current lithium-ion setup even before optimization.

The working prototype uses a carbon-based electrode to store hydrogen, coupled with a reversible fuel cell to produce electricity. The carbon in the electrode bonds with protons generated when charging by splitting water assisted by electrons from the power supply.

The protons are then released to pass back through the reversible fuel cell forming H₂O with oxygen from the air to generate power. Lead researcher, Professor John Andrews, says it is the carbon electrode plus the protons from water that give this particular battery its environmental, technological and economic edge.

Lithium, cobalt and nickel are experiencing price fluctuations as global tech and auto giants race to lock down these crucial battery materials.

All three metals were rising in price through the early part of 2018, according to the latest research from Wood Mackenzie’s newly launched Battery Raw Materials Service. The data charts out ups and downs in those metal prices over the next five years, which will play an increasingly significant role in the cost structure for advanced batteries.

The analysts expect lithium demand to grow by approximately 42 percent between 2017 and 2020, prompting an expansion of materials supply. But, they note, there’s a lag time between expanding raw metals production and churning out battery-grade materials.

“As such, we expect relatively high [lithium] price levels to be maintained over 2018,” the report states. “However, for 2019 and beyond, supply will start to outpace demand more aggressively and price levels will decline in turn.”

The report predicts a steady decline in lithium prices, along with increased supply, amounting to a compound annual growth rate of -18 percent for lithium carbonate between 2017 and 2022.

Cobalt is another story. Its price more than doubled from 2016 to 2017, and prices in February were up 133 percent year-over-year.

Even that run will be short-lived, though, peaking out at $70,548 per ton in 2018 before declining in the following two years, holding steady in 2021 and rising again in 2022.

Battery production drove 49 percent of cobalt demand in 2017, and will drive 61 percent in 2022, Wood Mac predicts. Battery demand for cobalt in that year will be just six kilotons short of the total cobalt demand in 2017.

A significant surplus will build up from 2019 onward, driving the reduction in price. However, a short-term price increase is likely, driven by regulatory uncertainty in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which supplied 64 percent of global cobalt production last year.

The DRC parliament passed a mining sector reform last month that would increase royalties on cobalt, copper and gold, and levy a 50 percent tax on “super profits,” defined as prices that exceed 25 percent of the project’s feasibility-study projections. That means more of the proceeds from mining stay in the Congo, but that could result in uncertainty or higher prices downstream.

A big challenge for the EV and renewable energy revolution is that the much-needed batteries are made from lithium, a relatively rare and pricey metal. Rather than focusing on other metals like magnesium, a team of scientists from RMIT University in Melbourne have figured it out to build rechargeable “proton” batteries from abundant carbon and water. If commercialized, the technology could allow for cheaper Powerwall-type home or grid storage to back up solar panels or windmills.

The batteries are a hybrid between a chemical battery and a hydrogen fuel cell. During charging, water is split to produce protons, which then pass through a cell membrane and bond to the carbon electrodes, without producing hydrogen gas. To tap the stored energy, the hydrogen ions are released and lose an electron to re-form the protons. The electrons supply power, while the hydrogen protons combine with oxygen and other electrons to re-form into water.

The big advantage with proton batteries compared to fuel cells is efficiency. The latter must produce hydrogen gas then split it back into protons, which creates losses. But a proton battery never produces hydrogen gas, so the energy efficiency is comparable to lithium-ion batteries. And even though the system is far from optimized, energy density is also comparable to lithium ion, the team said.

The researchers built a small, 1.2 volt battery, so the next step is to scale it up and improve efficiency. “Future work will now focus on further improving performance and energy density through use of atomically-thin layered carbon-based materials such as graphene, with the target of a proton battery that is truly competitive with lithium ion batteries firmly in sight,” said lead researcher Professor John Andrews.

Scientists have created the world’s first rechargeable proton battery, a crucial step towards cheaper and more environmentally-friendly energy storage.

While the battery is just a small-scale prototype, it has the potential to be competitive with currently available lithium-ion batteries.

The rechargeable battery, created by researchers at RMIT university in Melbourne, uses carbon and water instead of lithium.

The lead researcher Professor John Andrews said that as the world moved towards renewables, there would be a significant need for storage technologies that relied on cheap and abundant materials.

“Lithium-ion batteries are great but they rely on ultimately scarce and expensive resources,” he said. “Hydro is also a good technology but suitable sites are limited and the cost may be very high.

“The advantage is we’re going to be storing protons in a carbon-based material, which is abundant, and we are getting protons from water which is readily available.”

The battery itself produces no carbon emissions and it can store electricity from zero-emissions renewables.

Andrews said it could be commercially available within five to 10 years.

“When it is commercially available, it would be a competitor to the Tesla Powerwall and then eventually we’d hope we might find applications at the scale of the huge Tesla battery [in South Australia] and even larger.”

BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A new Leaderboard Report from Navigant Research examines the strategy and execution of 10 lithium ion (Li-ion) battery manufacturers, with LG Chem and Samsung SDI ranked as the leading companies.

Rapid growth in markets that rely on Li-ion batteries has allowed suppliers to develop economies of scale through major investments in new manufacturing facilities, which are also driving down prices. With this, the global landscape of Li-ion manufacturers is becoming increasingly competitive as companies vie for market share, leveraging the technology’s benefits of low cost, energy density, efficiency, and safety. Click to tweet: According to a new Leaderboard report from @NavigantRSRCH, LG Chem and Samsung SDI are the leading manufacturers of Li-ion batteries.

“Leaders in this market have clearly differentiated themselves from the competition through exceptional product development and strong industry relationships with project developers, utilities, financiers/investors, and system component vendors,” says Ian McClenny, research analyst at Navigant Research. “We believe that these Leaders are poised to spearhead the charge for current and next-generation Li-ion batteries in the coming years.”

Navigant Research expects the Li-ion industry to reach $23.1 billion by 2026. Market growth is likely to be spread primarily among the regions of North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, driven by regulatory changes and incentives before prices come down enough to compete with retail electricity rates, according to the report.

The report, Navigant Research Leaderboard: Lithium Ion Batteries for Grid Storage, examines the strategy and execution of 10 leading Li-ion battery manufacturers that are active in the global market for Li-ion batteries for grid storage. These players are rated on 12 criteria: vision; go-to market strategy; partners; production strategy; technology; geographic reach; sales, marketing, and distribution; product performance; product quality and reliability; product portfolio; pricing; and staying power. Using Navigant Research’s proprietary Leaderboard methodology, vendors are profiled, rated, and ranked with the goal of providing industry participants with an objective assessment of these companies’ relative strengths and weaknesses in the global Li-ion batteries for grid storage market. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research website.

Battery technology is changing. As consumers demand products that are thinner and more powerful, yet also have superior battery performance, researchers and manufacturing are developing new battery technologies, from novel materials to new power management devices. And there’s also the wider consideration of energy storage around alternative and renewable energies such as solar.

But what does all of this mean for battery safety? While major headlines will tell you about exploding smartphones and electric cars that catch fire after crashes, the importance of battery safety goes deeper than that.

Ryan Franks, Business Manager, Global Energy Storage, CSA Group works to develop and execute strategies for energy storage. Ahead of his talk at Advanced Design & Manufacturing Cleveland, Franks sat down with Design News to discuss the future of battery testing and inspection and how the global market for batteries is changing.

Right now most investment is going into lithium-ion. Companies are looking to improve on the material in all areas from power efficiency all the way to product design. But does that mean it holds the future? Is lithium-ion the future for batteries and battery safety? What about the alternatives?

Watch the full interview with Ryan Franks below and for more updates be sure to follow Design News on Facebook.