Dr Euan McTurk: Battery Electrochemist on the materials used in electric vehicle batteries, EV Batteries Explained event

A world leading battery electrochemist is on New Zealand’s shores. 

Dr Euan McTurk will be speaking at a function put on by Drive Electric, aiming to provide an international perspective on the availability of raw materials for EV batteries. 

Discussions will also be had about the current technology, and where it’s heading. 

McTurk told Mike Hosking that there’s quite a lot of interesting development at the moment. 

He said that there’s a great diversification of chemistries and materials being used for batteries, beyond the standard lithium-ion batteries. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to world leading bettery electrochemist in the country.
Despective of the ev industry. The iMOS provide an international
perspective on the availability of raw materials for betteries. Have
a look at the current technology and where it's all hitting.
Doctor Ewan McTurk is his name, and he's with us.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning to you, sir, Good morning Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I was reading an article the other die in Australia
fund raising at the moment for you know, these gargentuan
betteries for storage, not for kas, but for storage in general.
That's sort of technology, is it? The Simon evse In
other words, where betteries go, all betteries go.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
There's actually quite a broad church of battery chemistries now
and when it comes to grid scale energy storage, they
tend to be using lithium iron phosphate, which is basically
lithium rust and a bit of fertilizer in It is
incredibly cheap, abundant, safe, long lasting. And the good news
is that that kind of chemistry is being used in
modern electric vehicles too, so the likes of byd MG

(00:53):
the standard range Tesla Model three and why they use
that as well. But there are other chemistries that are
used in other electric vehicles. There's also an increasing number
of different types of chemistries that are are far flong
and totally different from lithium ion that can be used
in large scale grid stories too, So there's a great
diversification of chemistries and of the materials that are used.

(01:14):
So yeah, it's not just one size fits all this
there's quite a lot of interesting development at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Are you talking to me as a scientist or do
you also love batteries and blab bebs.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
So I didn't choose the plug life. The plug life
chose me.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Basically.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
When I was an undergrad, I was always interested in
green technology and what would become my first EV happened
to pull up outside the Physics building at the University
of Dundee. It was a nineteen ninety nine PUJUO one
h six electric with nicab batteries in it, and at
that point I knew I want to do something with this.
This seems cool. I didn't know they existed back then.
So yeah, fast forward however many years, that is fifteen years,

(01:50):
and I've now got my own consultancy working on anything
to do with technical strategy or public outreach, whether it's
battery electric chemistry. I've done my time in the lab
working on new kemtes and improving existing ones.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
And also, sorry to other radical radius guy, was China's
I have attacking Indonesia and the nickel business, and they
are digging nickel like this now tomorrow versus somebody like
Elon is busy saying let's do it un borron mentally,
where are we at with that? Is it ever going
to be clean, green and acceptable or not?

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh? Is it definitely getting cleaner basically element and by element.
And on that note, New Zealand is in a cracking
position because you've actually got your own nickel deposits, you've
got phosphate reserves. You've got lithium brines as well, not
just any old brines, geothermal brines. And the advantage of
that is you can use a very clever technique called
direct lithium extraction to very quickly and efficiently remove lithium

(02:41):
from that geothermal fluid. And you can also use the
heat from that fluid because funnily enough, it's near ablekano.
It's very hot to power the extraction process. So there's
really clean ways that you can extract raw materials. Nickel
does have its environmental concerns depending on where it comes from.
Indonesia does need to clean up its game. It acknowledges
that it's improving that. That said, global nickel producers are

(03:04):
now calling for a separate market for sustainable nickel. So
the free market is actually trying to resolve that by itself,
and there are huge strides being made.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Will we ever get to the point where I plugged
my car and I fill it up as fast as
I can with petrol?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well yes, but actually it's worth pointing out the paradoxically,
the slowest way to charge car is actually the fastest.
So for example, I plugged my car in when I
came home from work tonight. It's just going to be
sitting on the driveway overnight anyway, it will be fully
charged in the morning. And that only took a few
seconds of my time. But there have been some chemistries
demonstrated recently that have managed to rapid charge from near

(03:42):
enough empty to full in about five minutes. So and
that's multiple different types of chemistry from multiple different companies.
So it's coming. But what you'll probably find, and I
would implore anyone who's never driven an EV before to
take one out for a test dride for a couple
of days to get a feel of this yourself. Is
that actually you don't need that five minute charge time.
The average twell time at UK Motorway service station, for example,

(04:04):
is twenty five minutes, and that's more than enough for
a rapid charge.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Okay, good to talk to you. I could talk to
you forever night. Have a good time in the country.
Doctor Ewan MCTUK, a world leading beattery electrochemist at Geothermal
Bryans Hope. Shane Jones has heard of those. As soon
as he hears of the Geothermal Bryans, he's going to
be wetting his pants with excitement. For more from the
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