Sustainable management of lithium and green hydrogen and long-run perspectives of electromobility
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The present paper assesses the prospective role of lithium in the long-run development of electromobility. Based on the existing data, the study shows that the geographical concentration of global lithium riches and rather an oligopolistic market structure of the worldwide primary supply makes the global lithium supply vulnerable to unexpected shocks. Furthermore, the work finds that the current transition to lithium-based electromobility does not exhibit traits of strong or long-term sustainability. This is attributed to the limits of lithium endowments, the negligible recycling capabilities of lithium-ion batteries, and environmental degradation induced by the transition to lithium-ion battery-based electromobility. We conclude that lithium-ion battery-based electromobility is a meaningful bridging technology until the time when lithium-ion batteries could be reliably replaced by the strong sustainability paradigm of road mobility, epitomized by the green hydrogen fuel cells-based electromobility.
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Li has increasingly been used in grid storage applications.
“Additionally, Li has increasingly been used in grid storage applications (Chen et al 2020, Sadik-Zada et al 2023).”
From Environmental impacts of lithium supply chains from Australia to China (2024) · cites this paper as Sadik-Zada et al 2023
The Introduction discusses lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, and section 2 reports a rising share of lithium consumption for batteries generally. Neither passage addresses whether lithium use in grid storage has increased. Searches for grid storage and stationary energy storage found no passage establishing that trend. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
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- Authors
- Sadik-Zada, E. R., Gatto, A., & Scharfenstein, M.
- Affiliations
- Azerbaijan State University of Economics (AZ)
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Gatto, Andrea
- ORCID
- Gatto, Andrea
- Venue
- Technological Forecasting and Social Change
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-01
- Volume
- 186
- Pages
- 121992
- ISSN
- 0040-1625 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4308175327
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 3.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Technological Forecasting and Social Change (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Extraction and Separation Processes
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technologies
- Keywords
- lithium, green hydrogen, electric mobility, lithium-ion batteries, lithium supply, lithium recycling, battery recycling, environmental degradation, sustainability, hydrogen fuel cells, resource concentration, market structure
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