Exploring the potential for improving material utilization efficiency to secure lithium supply for China’s battery supply chain
Open accessAbstract
Lithium-ion battery (LIB) is the key technology for climate change mitigation. The sustainability of LIB supply chain has caused widespread concern since the material utilization efficiency of LIB supply chain has not been well investigated. This study aims to fill this research gap by conducting a dynamic material flow analysis of lithium in China from 2015 to 2021. Results indicate that within the temporal boundary, lithium flow and in-use stock grew significantly in China due to the rapid development of the EV market, with lithium flow in domestic production of basic chemicals increasing by 614% to 100 kt, end-use consumption increasing by 160% to 35 kt, and in-use stock increasing by 62% to 195 kt. China has been a net importer of lithium, of which cumulative imports and exports were 343 kt and 169 kt, respectively. In addition, 103 kt of lithium was converted to inventories or was lost during the processing from 2015 to 2021. By optimizing inventory and processing, developing substitutes for lithium for non-battery applications, and improving lithium recycling, China's net import dependency of lithium could be reduced from 27%-86% to 0%-16%. Our study demonstrates that it is urgent to improve material utilization efficiency so that the lithium resource supply can be secured.
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Models have been used to manage the materials in the supply chain for efficient production.
“Models have been used to manage the materials in the supply chain for efficient production [80-83].”
From Lithium Supply Chain Optimization: A Global Analysis of Critical Minerals for Batteries (2024) · cites this paper as [82]
The Introduction (page unavailable) says the study uses material flow analysis to trace lithium through China’s battery supply chain and identify ways to improve material utilization. It supports the use of a model to inform more efficient production, but does not show that models were used to manage materials in production. (LLM, conf=0.79)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Sun, X., Hao, H., Geng, Y., Liu, Z., & Zhao, F.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Hao, Han
- Geng, Yong
- Venue
- Fundamental Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-01
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 167-177
- ISSN
- 2096-9457 (ISSN-L)
- 2667-3258
- PMC
- PMC11197749
- OpenAlex
- W4312132018
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 6
- FWCI
- 3.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Fundamental Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (71774100, 71810107001, 72088101, 72122010)
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC1908501)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Extraction and Separation Processes
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Keywords
- lithium supply, lithium-ion batteries, battery supply chain, material utilization efficiency, lithium inventory, lithium recycling, electric vehicles, resource security, China
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