(721g) Subnational Supply Chain Analysis of Cobalt in the US to Guide Sustainable Manufacturing of Batteries for Renewable Energy: A Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) Approach.

The increasing demand for mineral-based resources that face supply risks calls for managing the supply chains for these resources at the regional level. Cobalt is a widely used cathode material in Li-ion batteries, which form the major portion of batteries used for renewable energy storage — a necessary technology for overcoming the challenge of intermittency, thus making renewable energy more reliable and energy generation more sustainable. This necessitates understanding cobalt’s supply risks and identifying the stocks of cobalt available for future use via recycling or mining. We address these needs in this work using multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analysis. MRIO analysis can be used to obtain the trade network of critical materials and offers a more expedient way to identify sub-regional material flows and stocks. However, tracing the flows of minor materials, such as cobalt, requires further sectoral disaggregation beyond the industrial classifications defining the input-output sectors. Commodities containing cobalt will be further disaggregated from a MRIO table of the United States and the subnational trade structure of cobalt observed from the MRIO will be presented. The presentation will highlight the methodology adopted for disaggregating a subsector of an economic input-output table beyond the level of aggregation defined by the most detailed NAICS codes. Results from mining the MRIO network for cobalt will highlight the geographical distribution of cobalt use, availability, and stocks as domestic waste that will become available as a secondary feedstock for battery production.