Environmental and socio-economic challenges in battery supply chains: graphite and lithium. Short study prepared within the framework of the BMBF joint project Fab4Lib. Research on measures to increase material and process efficiency in lithium-ion battery cell production along the entire value chain

The collaborative research project Fab4Lib funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, investigates innovative solutions along the value chain of lithium-ion technology and to validate them in demonstrators in preparation for a cell manufacturing in Germany. Within the project the Oeko-Institut already published a report on the development of the demand of raw materials needed for the electric vehicle (EV) uptake (Buchert et al. 2019). In this short study Oeko-Institut will highlight some of the environmental and socio-economic challenges of graphite and lithium in the upstream. A significant number of projects that aim at manufacturing Li-ion battery cells in Europe are already scheduled with some being already in production. In 2019 a total of 16 cell manufacturing plants are in the pipeline according to Benchmark Minerals (Benchmark Minerals 2020a). With the aim of moving towards a cleaner environment and a greener economy it is crucial to think the process across the whole supply chain. Although the manufacturing of cells might move towards Europe a large portion of the raw material supply still is and will take place in third countries. Oeko-Institut clearly showed in their Fab4Lib short study that raw material volumes required for the manufacturing of batteries for EVs will increase significantly (Buchert el al. 2019). This paper aims at giving an overview on two raw materials that are crucial in current generations Li-ion batteries and focusing on sustainability aspects in the upstream supply chain, since these characteristics are increasingly in the focus of the public. Actions for other raw materials such as conflict minerals have been already taken. Starting in 2021 companies importing tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold (3TG) will have to ensure that the metals are from responsible and conflict-free suppliers. Accordingly, sustainability aspects in mineral supply chains are increasingly in the focus of policy makers, society and companies. The paper will first look at graphite which is the most important anode material used in lithium-ion batteries. The two main production methods mining of natural graphite and producing synthetic graphite will be compared. Secondly, the paper will investigate lithium with a focus on hard rock mining in Australia, since it became the main source of lithium in the last years.