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Stanley Whittingham, Nobel laureate in chemistry: "Companies are more concerned about next month's stock market than the long term".

GERMAN TORO GHIO 6,435

Germán & Co

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Written in Spanish, By EMANOELLE SANTOS, El País, 27 DEC 2022

Translation by Germán & Co

If today you can charge a mobile phone in less than an hour and use it all day long, it is because it has a lithium-ion battery. The same battery that goes into laptops, electric vehicles, and renewable energy storage plants. Although it has been on the market since the 1990s, its first version was created two decades earlier. During the oil crisis in the 1970s, the US company Exxon (now ExxonMobil) hired chemist Stanley Whittingham (Nottingham, UK, 1941) to find alternatives to fossil fuels. The goal was to get electric vehicles off the ground and the researcher, who had studied at Oxford and Stanford, laid the foundations for the element that would change the behaviour of mankind.

His work with superconducting materials culminated in the first prototype lithium-ion battery, which was functional but not as safe. Ten years later, physicist John Goodenough demonstrated that, by changing some elements, he could store more energy. A breakthrough that was improved by engineer Akira Yoshino, who pioneered the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery in 1991.

All three received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the joint development of lithium-ion batteries. In his speech, Whittingan stressed the importance of interdisciplinarity and international collaboration to find the solutions the world needs. The main technical challenge is to improve the capacity of today's batteries, while at the global level, the supply chain for the elements needs to be changed and recycling needs to be encouraged. "Right now, some of the materials travel 50,000 miles (more than 80,000 kilometres) from the mine to the finished product, which doesn't make any sense," says the researcher, who stopped by the Ramón Areces Foundation, Madrid, in November to share a lecture on climate change and the critical role of energy storage.

Question: What is it like to see everyone using something you invented?

Answer. It's amazing, but we expected it. When we started working with lithium batteries, the focus was on electric vehicles. There was nothing like iPhones and laptops. It was the communications revolution that started lithium batteries.

We have to go for renewables, and I include nuclear as one of them.

Q. ExxonMobil was the big backer of this invention. What are companies doing today?

A. When I joined Exxon, most of the big companies had what they called corporate research labs. We did fundamental research related to the company. That all disappeared around 1990 and 1995. Companies should do it today because they are the only ones who can directly research future business, but I think they are more concerned about next month's stock market performance rather than what's going to happen in five or ten years. In the 1970s, they were much more concerned about the long term.

Q. Back then, they didn't invest more in improving lithium batteries because they thought it was too early and they didn't need to. Is it too late now?

A. We have to do it now. We can't burn coal and we have to get rid of most of the oil. So we must have new renewable energy sources and that requires storage. More research needs to be done to make batteries better, safer and cheaper. We have no other choice.

Q. His work with superconducting materials culminated in the first prototype lithium-ion battery, which was functional but not as safe. Ten years later, physicist John Goodenough showed that, by changing some elements, he could store more energy. A breakthrough that was improved by engineer Akira Yoshino, who pioneered the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery in 1991.

All three received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the joint development of lithium-ion batteries. In his speech, Whittingan stressed the importance of interdisciplinarity and international collaboration to find the solutions the world needs. The main technical challenge is to improve the capacity of today's batteries, while at the global level, the supply chain for the elements needs to be changed and recycling needs to be encouraged. "Right now, some of the materials travel 50,000 miles (more than 80,000 kilometres) from the mine to the finished product, which doesn't make any sense," says the researcher, who stopped by the Ramón Areces Foundation, Madrid, in November to share a lecture on climate change and the critical role of energy storage.

Q. In most countries, the energy that is stored comes from coal, oil and gas.

A. We must have green energy in the first place. New York State no longer generates electricity from coal. I have seen that England wants to get electricity from solar panels in Morocco and they are putting a very big power cable there. In Scandinavia, almost all the power is hydroelectric. So I think countries are going to change. The energy problems that were born out of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine teach us that you cannot depend on other countries for gas and oil. We have to go for renewables, and I include nuclear energy as one of them. The battery is just a means to store energy until the moment you want to use it.

Q. What is the next step you hope to see?

A. We want to double the energy density, the energy storage of lithium batteries. In US terms, to go down from $120 per kWh to about $60. We have to get rid of some of the materials we use now, like cobalt. We probably have to stop using a lot of nickel. Also, improve the electrolyte, which is the liquid inside the battery. What I call dummy batteries have no electronic protection inside, so they can catch fire.

Q. Would increasing the energy density increase the risk of explosions?

A. Whenever energy is stored it is not particularly safe. If the gasoline engine were invented today, we would not allow 20 gallons (75 litres) of gasoline to be put under a car and then put a child's seat right on top of it. We have got used to it and it will be the same with electric vehicles. But the batteries need to be safer and we may have to stop buying the super-cheap models from certain countries.. In most countries, the energy that is stored comes from coal, oil and gas.

Q. In your Nobel lecture, you said that a good battery can last forever. Are the ones on the market of good quality?

A. A battery is designed to last as long as the device it is used in. Nobody wants to pay for a 20-year battery to put in their phone and change it every three or four years. But if you change it, you have to make sure it's a really good battery. What I call fake batteries have no electronic protection inside, so they can catch fire.

The first thing is to save energy. That's the easiest way to help the energy transition.
Q. Are governments doing enough to regulate them?

R. They should insist that any battery in circulation meets national standards. In the US, many don't and there have been fires because people charge them indoors. The controls are not good, but they are on the market and they are cheap. You have to be careful.

Q. Is recycling the solution to ensure that supply meets demand?

A. The goal in the United States is to have all batteries recycled and in New York State they are not allowed to be thrown away. Mobile phone batteries are 100% cobalt, so they are worth a lot of money. So we should encourage people to recycle them. Batteries are one example, semiconductors are another, the same with plastics. Sometimes, even when it goes for recycling, you don't know if it is actually recycled or if it (the waste) is sent to developing countries. The companies that manufacture them should be forced to recycle them at source. That has to come from governments.

Q. Elon Musk is the owner of the world's largest electric vehicle company. Should he use his influence to encourage recycling?

A. It's not clear to me that he's interested in that sort of thing. One of his former engineers has set up a recycling company right next to a large battery plant in Nevada (USA). They also claim it's going to be a mining company: they're mining old batteries for all the materials they contain. Nobody trusts him these days.

Q. China has given a lot of subsidies to make it cheaper to buy an electric vehicle. Why don't the US and Europe do it in a more significant way?

A. The US and Europe could sell many more cars if they had the batteries and materials. The wait is 12 to 24 months in the US. It's a supply chain problem. We don't have the manufacturing facilities, we don't have the mines, we don't have the skilled people. Many of the big battery factories are South Korean companies, like LG, Samsung and SK, who are now building manufacturing plants in the US. What we really want is for Americans to make their own batteries; I imagine European governments want the same thing. We need to move away from this global supply chain that doesn't work. We saw that during Covid-19 we couldn't get face masks. Now we can't get semiconductors. We have to regionalise everything.

We have to move away from this global supply chain that doesn't work. We saw it with masks during Covid-19. It's happening now with semiconductors.
 

Q. Will this problem be solved in the next few years?

A. There is a huge trend in the US to become more independent from Asia. We can't have 100% of something coming from one place, no matter where it is. We need more diversity.

Q. If you were starting your research now, what would you do?

A. The most interesting areas in science right now are not chemistry and physics, but somewhere in between these two disciplines. Another one is everything related to biomedicine, which is in between biology, engineering, chemistry and medicine. Those are the two big areas that I find most exciting. I like to do what I call focused research, which starts from fundamental research but with a practical goal in the future.

Q. On a personal level, how can you contribute to this energy transition?

A. The first thing is to save energy. The easiest way is to use less energy in everything we do. One person in the US uses about twice as much energy as each person in Europe. We can certainly cut back. And I hope that people in Europe can also cut back. We need more public transport, people not driving their cars themselves. When I worked for Exxon, we all shared a car. It was normal. That doesn't seem to happen anymore.

Q. In your Nobel lecture, you said that a good battery can last forever. Are the ones on the market of good quality?

R. A battery is designed to last as long as the device it is used in. Nobody wants to pay for a 20-year battery to put in their phone and change it every three or four years. But if you change it, you have to make sure it's a really good battery. What I call fake batteries have no electronic protection inside, so they can catch fire. The first thing is to save energy. That's the easiest way to help the energy transition.

Q. Are governments doing enough to regulate them?

R. They should insist that any battery in circulation meets national standards. In the US, many don't and there have been fires because people charge them indoors. The controls are not good, but they are on the market and they are cheap. You have to be careful.

Q. Is recycling the solution to ensure that supply meets demand?

R. The goal in the United States is to have all batteries recycled and in New York State they are not allowed to be thrown away. Mobile phone batteries are 100% cobalt, so they are worth a lot of money. So we should encourage people to recycle them. Batteries are one example, semiconductors are another, the same with plastics. Sometimes, even when it goes for recycling, you don't know if it is actually recycled or if it (the waste) is sent to developing countries. The companies that manufacture them should be forced to recycle them at source. That has to come from governments.

P. Elon Musk is the owner of the world's largest electric vehicle company. Should he use his influence to encourage recycling?

R. It's not clear to me that he's interested in that sort of thing. One of his former engineers has set up a recycling company right next to a large battery plant in Nevada (USA). They also claim it's going to be a mining company: they're mining old batteries for all the materials they contain. Nobody trusts him these days.

P. China has given a lot of subsidies to make it cheaper to buy an electric vehicle. Why don't the US and Europe do it in a more significant way?

R. The US and Europe could sell many more cars if they had the batteries and materials. The wait is 12 to 24 months in the US. It's a supply chain problem. We don't have the manufacturing facilities, we don't have the mines, we don't have the skilled people. Many of the big battery factories are South Korean companies, like LG, Samsung and SK, who are now building manufacturing plants in the US. What we really want is for Americans to make their own batteries; I imagine European governments want the same thing. We need to move away from this global supply chain that doesn't work. We saw that during Covid-19 we couldn't get face masks. Now we can't get semiconductors. We have to regionalise everything.

We have to move away from this global supply chain that doesn't work. We saw it with masks during Covid-19. It's happening now with semiconductors.
Q. Will this problem be solved in the next few years?

A. There is a huge trend in the US to become more independent from Asia. We can't have 100% of something coming from one place, no matter where it is. We need more diversity.

Q. If you were starting your research now, what would you do?

A. The most interesting areas in science right now are not chemistry and physics, but somewhere in between these two disciplines. Another one is everything related to biomedicine, which is in between biology, engineering, chemistry and medicine. Those are the two big areas that I find most exciting. I like to do what I call focused research, which starts from fundamental research but with a practical goal in the future.

Q. On a personal level, how can you contribute to this energy transition?

A. The first thing is to save energy. The easiest way is to use less energy in everything we do. One person in the US uses about twice as much energy as each person in Europe. We can certainly cut back. And I hope that people in Europe can also cut back. We need more public transport, people not driving their cars themselves. When I worked for Exxon, we all shared a car. It was normal. That doesn't seem to happen anymore.