Research on Lithium Technology Safety Issues: A Bibliometric Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Journal: Sustainability

Title of Article: Research on lithium technology safety issues: a bibliometric 2 analysis manuscript ID: sustainability-2170350

 

Major comments:

The current investigation is a review paper on lithium technology safety issues. In my opinion, this work is interesting and appropriate for publication in  “Sustainability“ journal. The paper is well presented plus the authors have covered all the aspects of the topic; number of articles, citations, cooperations, organizations and countries. Then they carefully analyzed the topic based on the keywords clustery. Thus, the paper content is worthy of publication.

 

Author Response

We sincerely thank you for the valuable feedback.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

I have reviewed his manuscript in detail under the title: Research on lithium technology safety issues: a bibliometric analysis with a manuscript ID sustainability-2170350.

In the manuscript as a reviewer, I would like to first emphasize that the biometrics study does not plan a research question, nor does it describe a theoretical framework; likewise, the information presented does not solve anything. Therefore, there is no relevance to the topic. Unfortunately, I have to report that this work does not meet the minimum requirements to be accepted in the Sustainability journal. Below, I develop various points that describe in detail the reasons for my rejection:

• The document titles a theme of topics to consider for safety research in lithium-based technologies, but in its content, there is not a single topic that discusses the safety points to address for the handling of this chemical element. In other words, the manuscript only deals very superficially with some applications of lithium without delving further.

• In the sentence of lines 32 to 33, a reference must be incorporated to report the trend of lithium consumption over the years.

• On line 47, reference 2 is offered, showing that lithium has large values of energy density. Here it is recommended to show a diagram based on weight and volume that illustrates the energy density intervals that the different families of lithium-based batteries can have.

• On lines 51 and 51 indicate lithium-based batteries in military applications as one and provide a reference.

• The content of the text included in lines 65 to 66 is not understood. Please check the English wording.

• In the sentence located on lines 80 to 82, a quote that reports the mentioned statistic must be included.

• On line 85, provide the number and its units of some lithium-based compounds for the viscosity/temperature rate and incorporate its reference.

• On lines 100 and 101, share the percentages associated with security issues mentioned.

• The authors of this paper are asked why their topic is relevant? For example, in the information provided on lines 108 to 113, Kalluri summarized in detail the areas of opportunity to make the use of lithium safer. Furthermore, many of these points have already been resolved. In fact, what Kalliri indicated is no longer entirely relevant because in 2013 these were the problems, but today a large part of it has been resolved.

• The information presented from line 113 to line 114 is not understood, please check the English wording.

• In materials and methods, it is not explained what was the search chain used of the consulted databases, nor what were the inclusion, exclusion, and quality criteria.

• It is recommended to add a flowchart of the methodology used (PRISMA).

• The study did not present objectives in its methodology, nor is there a research question or hypothesis.

• The argument as to why there is an increase in the number of publications presented in lines 172 to 175 is speculative and of very low methodological value. Here the authors are not understanding that the use of lithium is not only due to energy applications, there are also many industries from various sectors that use this chemical element. Therefore, Figure 1 does not provide relevant information.

• The authors do not justify why they ignore the documents based on international quality, safety, and patent standards to understand the evolution of lithium-based technology. Furthermore, the authors did not offer a discussion of mass-production or large-scale manufacturing techniques for lithium-based technologies to describe the proliferation of lithium use. In fact, the least relevant material in hierarchical order would be the scientific articles that mostly describe proofs of concept or fundamental theory or basic science information but not Technology Readiness Level NASA-developed method for estimating the maturity of technologies

• Table 1 is irrelevant to the scientific community since nothing described is associated with safety issues in the handling of lithium. Likewise, it is no longer relevant for the scientific community to analyze the relevance of the articles based primarily on how many citations does each paper have? Instead, we have other more reliable criteria to know how to distinguish which studies are relevant and which are not for a specific topic. Moreover, the discussion provided in lines 230 to line 232 is not correct since what the authors mention does not correspond to what is observed in table 1.

• The information on lines 238 to 244 is irrelevant and unnecessary. Likewise, here it can clearly be observed that the authors are not familiar with these journals to understand that precisely the main topic that these journals address is not security in technological development.

• Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are unclear, the text is not distinguishable and they are not adequate to describe relationships or analysis of information.

• Tables 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 is a clear examples of information that is neither pertinent nor relevant to the topic. In other words, what good is it to society to know where more issues of fundamental lithium-based science are published? What other author publishes on the subject of fundamental lithium-based science? What universities and countries do the most research on basic lithium science research topics? Etc. The authors must understand that the relevance is to know how I can transport and handle lithium in large quantities and in mass production industrial processes for already commercialized technological development. Therefore, this study is irrelevant.

Finally, I would like to observe that from the way the manuscript is written, it can be seen that the authors do not have previous experience with the various industries of chemical transformation, since when organizing a manuscript based on providing content based on or referring to unitary processes for the development of electrochemical technology, as well as manufacturing processes, it will be possible, consequently, to associate and visualize the safety challenges in the handling of lithium. That is to say, if currently different examples of lithium-based technology have been commercialized every time with more frequency, then can it really be said that as a community we have problems managing its safety? The answer is no since today lithium is used everywhere and in different ways.

My last comment to the authors is not to be discouraged, congratulations for making the effort to submit a manuscript. In the end, it is better to receive extensive feedback that helps them see how they can work on each point indicated to improve their areas of opportunity.

Much success and greetings.

 

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors,

in order to improve the quality of your bibliographic review on lithium applications, you should consider that it is planned to employ lithium even in the future nuclear fusion power plants. In particular, in the nuclear fusion power plants devoted to produce electric power, the exploitation of the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction is envisaged. In this regard, in order to produce the tritium necessary to self-sustain the reactor, the nuclear reactions between lithium nuclei and the neutrons produced by the fusion reactions themselves will be exploited, giving rise to the so-called "tritium breeding" reactions. To this purpose, the nuclear fusion power plants will be equipped with a dedicated system called breeding blanket (BB). At present, sevral breeding blanket concepts are being assessed to be selected as the reference one in the future nuclear fusion power plants. Among them, the most promising are the Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) BB concept and the Helium-Cooled Lithium Lead (HCLL) BB concept. You could mention them making use of the following reference papers:

1) P. Arena et al., The DEMO Water-Cooled Lead–Lithium Breeding Blanket: design Status at the End of the Pre-Conceptual Design Phase, Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(24), 11592; https://doi.org/10.3390/app112411592.

2) J. Aubert et al., Status of the EU DEMO HCLL breeding blanket design development, Fusion Engineering and Design 136 (2018) 1428–1432;
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2018.04.133.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx