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Comment by fbdab103 | Hacker News Reader

Not sure it is a 1:1 equivalent, but this site[0] claims global chromium production is at 41 million metric tons while lithium is 180,000 metric tons. So, the supply chain already exists.

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/598320/mine-production-o...

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Chromium mining is crucial for the steel production industry because chromium is a key ingredient in the production of stainless steel. We've been hunting and mining it for a LONG time now. Stainless is important to so many preexisting industries, such as new construction, automotive, aerospace, and household appliances. Consequently, there have been shortages in the availability and mining of chromium and this has directly impacted the production capacity and quality of stainless steel in the recent market. Seems solid-state battery production will be in competition with these industries and I would hedge a bet that Stainless Prices will go high in the coming decades as a reflection of the pinch on chromium.

Are there any alternative steel alloys that aren't used now for cost reasons that we'd see if there was a spike in chromium prices?

AFAIK there's no stainless steel without chromium. There are alternatives, like galvanizing or powdercoating.

I think if the price of chromium spiked enough, you'd just see more things move on to different materials. More aluminum, titanium, brass, bronze, etc. There are a lot of things made of stainless that don't necessarily have to be, simply because it's cheap and good enough.

During WWII Germany had limited access to chromium and cobalt so they developed alternative metallurgy for their engines etc. I know they nickel plated their cylinder bores. I’m sure there’s more detail available somewhere.

Can you recover chromium from stainless steel?

Yes, through electrochemical means. It's not super energy efficient though, it'd be much better to not put it into steel in the first place if you want to make batteries out of it.

We're already recycling pretty much all the steel we can, so yes, but it's already factored into the global steel supply chain.

I went on a ride through the internet and saw some figures that lithium production would need to increase by 40X by 2040.

But that's still only 7.2 million tons/year.

I feel like the where are we going to get the lithium and but what about the environmental costs arguments to be kind of weak when you look at actual production numbers and compare the costs with other resources we consume.

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