RT Journal Article
T1 Challenges for sustainable lithium supply: a critical review
A1 Amato, Alessia
A1 Becci, Alessandro
A1 Villén-Guzmán, María Dolores
A1 Vereda-Alonso, Carlos
A1 Beolchini, Francesca
K1 Litio
AB The growing diffusion of green technologies, essential for a low carbon emission economy, has caused an increasingly demand of lithium and its recent inclusion in the list of critical raw material for Europe. Currently, the main resources of lithium include brines and hard rock ores (placed in Chile, Australia, Argentina and China). Nevertheless, the possibility of an integrated supply system, able to include primary and secondary productions (from waste batteries), is becoming more and more interesting to decrease the environmental impacts. In this context, the present review combines a complete overview of lithium supply state-of-art, with an environmental assessment of several scenarios where primary production is integrated with urban mining strategies. The assessment aims at including several market aspects, to obtain results consistent with the evolving European context. Starting from real information, the evaluation proved the possible substitution of about 30% of primary lithium, with a consequent reduction of the environmental impact (>10%). The results represent an important supporting tool for the improvement of lithium recycling value chain. Indeed, several variables characterize the waste batteries management, including the available quantities, the selected recycling process and the relative amount of rechargeable/not rechargeable batteries. These aspects affect the real sustainability of European lithium supply strategy: centralized system vs a decentralized approach with many facilities on the territory.
PB Elsevier
YR 2021
FD 2021-04-03
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/36382
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/36382
LA eng
NO Amato Alessia, Becci Alessandro, Villen-Guzman Maria, Vereda-Alonso Carlos, Beolchini Francesca, Challenges for sustainable lithium supply: A critical review, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 300, 2021, 126954, ISSN 0959-6526, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126954. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652621011732)
NO This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 778045. Villen-Guzman acknowledges the postdoctoral fellowship obtained from the University of Malaga.
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 20 ene 2026