Investigating the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of the Global Lithium Supply Chain for Batteries

The global demand for battery materials like lithium is increasing due to increased demand for battery-electric vehicles. Lithium is economically extracted from brine and spodumene ore resources, while clay resources are also gaining interest. These resources are diffusely spread across the globe. The greenhouse gas emissions of extracting lithium from these sources vary considerably due to the required processing energy and material inputs to the systems, along with the needs associated with the desired final products, namely lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. Also, different extraction and processing stages may occur in different countries leading to variability in grid electricity emissions and additional transportation emissions. Therefore, an accurate representation of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the global lithium supply chain is difficult to estimate. To fill this gap, the current work uses a novel framework to calculate the emissions from each step of the global lithium supply chain, accounting for the variability in lithium sourcing, additional material requirements, and processing locations. Further, the change in emissions due to possible supply disruptions is also investigated utilizing agent-based modeling of supply-demand flows. Overall, the results from this work can help identify carbon-intensive pathways in the global lithium supply chain and highlight pathways that lead to reduced emissions.