Concerns about global phosphorus demand for lithium-iron-phosphate batteries in the light electric vehicle sector
Bryan M. Spears, Will J. Brownlie, Dana Cordell, Ludwig Hermann, José M. Mogollón
Abstract
Xu et al. 1 offer an analysis of future demand for key battery materials to meet global production scenarios for light electric vehicles (LEV). They conclude that by 2050, demands for lithium, cobalt and nickel to supply the projected >200 million LEVs per year will increase by a factor of 15–20. However, their analysis for lithium-iron-phosphate batteries (LFP) fails to include phosphorus, listed by the Europen Commission as a “Critical Raw Material” with a high supply risk 2 . We outline below that, whilst timely, their analysis is incomplete in that it does not consider the complexities of the global anthropogenic phosphorus cycle in the context of supply chain resilience and sustainability for the emerging LEV sector.