Scientists at the John de Laeter Centre, Curtin University, Australia, have developed a technique for ‘fingerprinting’ lithium, a key ingredient in energy storage systems and rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles.
The fingerprinting technique, which is a first for lithium, detects unique chemical properties in the metal that indicate its country of provenance and even the site it was mined from. The researchers say they are using ‘lithium isotopes, strontium isotopes and others’ to verify the lithium’s Australian provenance.
Australia is, by far, the world’s leading lithium producer. It mines more than 55,000 tonnes per year of the relatively rare metal, corresponding to about 51.7% of global output.
Increasingly, Western governments and companies are looking to verify the provenance of lithium and other critical minerals to reduce reliance on low-cost Chinese processing (nearly 60% of the world’s lithium is processed in China). With Australia’s lithium industry set to implement fingerprinting technology, the US, China, and the EU will be watching closely and strategising the extent of their involvement.
In another battery-related development, vehicle manufacturer Volvo has patented a method for detecting counterfeit aftermarket batteries installed in its vehicles.
The method uses a computer, together with processing circuity, incorporated into a battery management system. The computer is configured to receive data from the sensor of at least one battery cell, which it compares to reference data generated from a plurality of original batteries, using a battery cell modeler. The comparison allows the computer to determine whether a particular battery deviates from the reference data to the point where it can be identified as counterfeit.
Staying with Volvo, this year the company launched the world’s first electric vehicle battery passport for recording the origin of raw materials, components, recycled content and carbon footprint for its flagship EX90 SUV. The passport was developed by Volvo in partnership with UK start-up Circulor, which uses blockchain technology to map supply chains for companies.
EX90 SUV owners can access a simplified version of the passport using a QR code on the inside of the driver’s door. A more complete version of the passport can be accessed by regulators.
Circulor’s system traces battery materials from the mine to individual cars, piggybacking on suppliers’ production systems to track materials throughout the supply chain. The passport has also obliged Volvo to change how it traces parts through its manufacturing process, in order to be able to identify the origin of every part in every vehicle.
Battery passports will be mandatory for electric vehicles sold in the European Union from February 2027. Batteries are the first industry to adopt digital product passports (DPP), which require unique identifiers to be applied to individual products, or batches, in the form of a data carrier such as a watermark or QR code.
Textiles, electronics and construction materials have also been identified as primary focus areas for DPP implementation, although the scheme is expected to be adopted across many other industries, EU-wide, in the coming years.
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© Volvo.
