Lithium commercial uses

Solid state primary batteries can provide very long-life operation at low currents. The first example of such an application is the lithium-iodide solid state battery for cardiac pacemakers which is manufactured in the US by Catalyst Research Co., by Wilson Greatbatch, and by Medtronic Inc. The second example is lithium-glass battery, whose application envisaged is mainly as a power source for electronic computers, such as C-MOS memory backup. Cells commercially available are design XR2025HT by the Union Carbide group. 

The process operated commercially for several years, and the production was increased fivefold since it started in 1961 to reach an annual rate of 2 million Ib/yr of lithium carbonate. However, after the US Government s purchase of lithium ended the plant could only run at reduced levels because of the intense competition, and closed in 1965 (Flanagan, 1978 Anon., 1967). 

The first commercial application for high volume MEA production will be for small portable electronics, which is driven by ever increasing power requirements and for longer duration energy sources. The US Fuel Cell Council, which has over 115 corporate members, has forecasted that the fuel cell market for small portable electronics will be 2 billion by 2011 with the potential of a 70% market penetration into the lithium ion battery market by 2007. To get a better understanding of this market size it is also forecasted that there will be 1.6 billion cell phone subscribers in 2007 worldwide, 76 million laptop shipments in 2007 and 37 million shipments of PDAs (personal digital assistants) in 2007. 

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