Quote:
Originally Posted by soundman98
you address oil as a natural resource, but don't say anything about copper and/or aluminum(really the only viable electrical wiring methods for the past 30+ years), lithium, and cobalt that are also limited natural resources, all of which have some very destructive mining practices. what good does it do to us to migrate entirely to lithium power if there's not enough lithium in the mines to supply the world of the power? and all these battery-powered cars need wires to work, what good does it do if we've stripped the world already of copper and aluminum resources?
trading one natural resource availability for another isn't a win in my book. i've got the same problem with 'burning water' for hydrogen production.
while there's some lithium iron recycling that is set to begin in 2022 in NY(they promise 95% metal recovery), there's still a very large gap between batteries produced, and viable methods to material recovery.
|
Battery recycling comes in many fashions, but one of the best methods for extending battery use is grid storage. A repurposed car battery can provide storage for quite a bit longer beyond the typical vehicle lifetime. Grid storage isn’t dependent on peak efficiency or on max capacity, nor are they constrained by packaging or weight. Yes, mining will eventually turn into recycling, especially as the world population stabilizes and demand plateaus. There may also be a point where recycling becomes significantly more profitable than mining or legislation limits mining, which makes recycling necessary. This is somewhat already the case for copper and aluminum where cooper recycling accounts for a third of cooper production. We will likely just take an old electric car and turn it into a new car or just attach a new battery to an old car with a minimum addition of new mining products.
With faster charging or battery advances, batteries don’t need to be as big. In a green future with abundant green energy production, excesses will be used to make hydrogen, which will also reduce demand on copper because batteries will be smaller. With ride sharing of different types and autonomous taxis coming, many people might not have a vehicle. Why own something that spends most of the time just sitting there? For cities, this will be much more common.
How much research have you done on global supplies and advances in the industry? Have you watched Tesla’s battery day? The plan is to use lithium clay in Nevada using salt and water for extraction. Musk has said there is enough lithium in the world to meet all the world’s needs and then some, so it isn’t a limiting factor. He said Nevada alone could supply all the lithium the US needs. They also use lithium iron phosphate batteries that are cobalt free. Cobalt isn’t needed for BEVs to replace ICEs.
I think it is worth reading these articles for a taste of what is going on in the industry and watch the battery day presentation, so you can see what the plans are.
Quote:
“Tesla endorsed the lithium claystones,” Bowering said. “Tesla engineers have been all over the planet for years looking at lithium sources. They are now making a bet on Nevada… [which] has several sedimentary lithium deposits that are the future of lithium mining and in a mining-friendly environment. Nevada sits on top of a major caldera of super volcanoes that populated the sediments with minable concentrations of lithium like nowhere else in the country.”
Tesla said its plan in Nevada involves mixing clay with table salt and then adding water. The company said the process causes a reaction where the salt would leach out with lithium, and the lithium then would be extracted. The leftover clay would be put back in the ground to mitigate environmental damage, much like the current mining industry practice of returning rock to the earth after minerals are extracted.
|
https://www.google.com/amp/s/electre...n-process/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune...materials/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.eng...234534595.html