Raw materials and recycling for electric vehicles Markus Becker Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety of Germany Division for Environment and Transport, Electric Mobility 1
What can we do to support the electrification of transport from a resource perspective? Can recycling help to secure material supply and lower environmental impacts? 2
Electrification is key to bring down emissions • Avoid and shift transport are very useful, also from an economic point of view and for quality of life in cities • But: Remaining motorized transport is likely to be of enormous volume • When it comes to road transport, electrification is of high preference: • EV are about 3 times more efficient > Climate Action Programm 2020 than conventional power trains > Climate Protection Plan 2050 of the Federal Government of Germany • With a decarbonising electricity generation, well-to-wheel emissions decrease drastically 3
Findings from supported recycling projects • Recycling of battery and power electronics is feasible • Lithium in particular can be recycled in primary quality • Life cycle analysis shows that the developed recycling procedures provide green house gas and energy savings • Current prices (and legislation) do not require lithium recycling (but rather cobalt) 4
Dialogue on resources for e-mobility • German think tank invited government, industry and society stakeholders to provide input into a broader resource analysis on e-mobility • Research institute analysed different scenarios • Main findings are: (1) lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and platinum as „ usual suspects “ are abundant, even if a fast and global electric vehicle uptake is assumed (2) temporary scarcities and price increases cannot fully be excluded (3) extracting raw material for e-mobility entails environmental impacts such as it does if for other appliances (needless to say if we look at crude oil, too) 5
What can we do about? The dialogue and study identified several recommendations: (a) foster R&D in order to - enhance material efficiency - advance recycling technologies - identify material substitutes if needed (b) think about an industrial alliance for sustainable supply and seek international collaboration for sustainable mining (c) set up a commodities radar together (d) adapt the EU battery directive (e) HANDLE WITH CARE Picture credits: kurier.at, BMUB 6
Life cycle green house impacts of e-components New vehicle 2017 New vehicle 2025 7 Calculation after BMUB, UBA, ifeu (2017)
Thank you for your attention! If you would like to read further: http://erneuerbar- mobil.de/projekte?projectsubjects=10&partner=All&project_status=All&combine= https://www.agora- verkehrswende.de/fileadmin/Projekte/2017/Nachhaltige_Rohstoffversorgung_Elekt romobilitaet/Agora_Verkehrswende_Synthesenpapier_WEB.pdf 8
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