Lithium for batteries: the dream of a clean car

Electric drives instead of combustion engines – this is how cars should become clean. BMW states that it sources lithium for batteries from a sustainable manufacturer. Yet NDR-Research raises doubts about this.

Lithium is considered the white gold of the energy transition. Above all, the automotive industry’s need for e-mobility is causing demand for the alkali metal to explode. The price of lithium carbonate has increased fifteenfold in the past two years.

One of the largest deposits is in South America, where lithium is extracted from salt lakes. Car maker BMW claims to source lithium directly from a particularly sustainable manufacturer: Livent. In March 2021, BMW signed a contract worth 285 million euros with the US group, which mines lithium at the Salar del Hombre Muerto, a salt lake in Argentina.

“Particularly sustainable”

In a press release, BMW claims that Livent’s process is “particularly sustainable” compared to conventional lithium mining in the country triangle between Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. Livent uses “an innovative process that ensures sustainable water use and minimizes the impact on local ecosystems and communities”.

In fact, Livent’s procedure initially sounds exemplary. Most lithium mines in South America evaporate salt water containing lithium with chemicals until the lithium remains. Instead, Livent uses the “Direct Lithium Extraction” process, in which the salt water is pumped directly into a treatment plant, where the lithium is extracted through chemical processes. An advantage of the method: Unlike the evaporation process, for example in the Atacama Desert of Chile, countless evaporation basins do not have to be created. The area consumption is therefore lower with the direct method, as used by Livent.

High consumption of fresh water

However, the direct process is less sustainable than the conventional evaporation method in terms of freshwater consumption. This is the result of research by ARD-Magazine panorama and the online format CTRL_F. According to the company’s annual and environmental impact reports, Livent uses almost 900 liters of fresh water to produce one kilogram of lithium. That’s more than five times the amount of fresh water used in the evaporation method at the Atacama Salt Flats in Chile. Based on figures in its sustainability report and its own online monitoring, the Chilean company SQM needs 173 liters of fresh water per kilogram there.

BMW replies that the projects cannot be compared. The Hombre Muerto Salt Lake, where Livent mines lithium, has more rainfall and available water resources than the Atacama Salt Lake. According to the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, the Livent mine is actually in a low water risk region – the lowest category. This is surprising at first, because the desert-like area is considered a very dry region. In fact, the Risk Atlas considers water resources in relation to water users, for example based on population density. Accordingly, parts of the Libyan desert also have the lowest category. East Frisia, on the other hand, is considered more risky.

Román Guitian, spokesman for the indigenous community “Atacameños del Altiplano”, criticizes Livent’s consumption of fresh water in the region. Livent had already built a dam on a river for lithium production in the 1990s, which then dried up below the dam. This has devastating consequences for local livestock farming, for example. Guitian worries that as lithium demand increases, even the region’s largest river could dry up.

Several kilograms of lithium are required for the battery of an electric SUV, for the BMW iX M60, for example, even around ten kilograms. If the lithium came entirely from Livent, that would be almost 9,000 liters of fresh water.

Worry about the water table

The groundwater level is important for the dry region, for which the handling of the salt water under the salt lakes plays a role. BMW highlights Livent’s approach in this regard as positive. In fact, with the conventional evaporation method, the salt water, also called brine, is pumped out of the subsoil of the salt lakes before it is channeled into large evaporation basins. The problem with this is that, according to various studies, not only can the level of the underground salt lake drop due to the consumption or evaporation of large quantities of brine, but also the groundwater at the edge of the salt lakes.

With the process used by Livent, the processed brine can be pressed back into the underground salt lake. This can prevent the lake level and the groundwater in the area from falling. BMW claims that “most of the brine used” does not evaporate. That would be a plausible procedure if it were implemented in this way.

But there are doubts as to whether the procedure will be implemented in this way. In Livent’s own environmental reports, for example, there is no mention of the remaining brine being fed back underground. But what can be read in the reports: According to Livent, after the pH value has been neutralized, the residual brine is fed into an artificial lake on the Salar del Hombre Muerto.

doubts about implementation

Broder Merkel, Professor of Hydrogeology at the Bergakademie Freiberg, sees only two options for what happens to the residual brine: “The residual brine is either pumped back into the brine or it is directed to the salar, where it evaporates.” Merkel goes on the basis of NDR-Research assumes the latter is the case. Contrary to the statements made by BMW, he therefore sees no positive effect with regard to the brine level. BMW and Livent left NDR-Inquiries about what happens to the brine used go unanswered.

BMW emphasizes that it takes its responsibility in the context of environmental and social standards in lithium procurement very seriously. The group points to scientific studies on lithium mining in Chile and Argentina that have been commissioned. BMW did not answer specific questions about the dismantling by Livent. When asked, it says: “We oblige all our suppliers to comply with environmental and social standards, human rights and the use of management systems for occupational safety and environmental protection. This is also the case with our supplier Livent.” Livent also did not answer questions about the production process and sustainability.

By 2040, global demand for lithium could increase more than tenfold compared to today. The ecological consequences of mining for the ecosystems in the mining areas cannot be foreseen.

Panorama reports on this topic today at 10:20 p.m. in the first