New material to extend life of Lithium Batteries

[ebikeerwidnes]

https://au.pcmag.com/batteries-powe...tteries-to-maintain-full-capacity-for-5-years

could be useful

or could be yet another "the scientists have sorted it" story that will not come to market - or if it does will not perform as well as the story says in real world use

still - we can hope!

 

[confusedcyclist]

Whichever way your slice it, the laws of diminishing returns still applies to yields of rare earth minerals (low hanging fruit always picked first, because that's good economic sense). Unless there is some radical new technology to improve energy density with materials that are far more abundant, over time the only thing you can really count on is the increasing cost of batteries to the point where they become luxury goods, or worse, not commercially viable, to the point we just give up mining the essential components. As more and more energy has to go into extracting the same amount of the final product from lower yield ores, this really can't be avoided. This tech could knock back the day you can no longer afford a 625kWh battery by a few years, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[Drago]

Id like to think I'll happen, but we see so many breakthrough technologies that never make it to the market place it's easy to brcome cycnical.

 

[the snail]

.. the laws of diminishing returns still applies to yields of rare earth minerals..

Lithium isn't a rare earth metal, it's one of the most abundant elements?

 

[Drago]

In the form required in order for it to be extracted from mother earth (lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide), it is actually pretty rare - they don't use simple elemental lithium metal for batteries. There's the beginnings of a supply problem even now, with companies like Tesla even going as far as buying shares mines, mineral rights and production facilities to try and protect their individual supplies. There is nowhere near enough available to be able to replace each ICE car with a battery powered car.

Even worse, the processes for extracting it are some of the most environmentally damaging and polluting industrial processes known to humankind. Elon Musk and Tesla want to save the Earth...by irreversably reducing the levels of water tables in the Atacama, and dumping used chemicals into the environment that won't leach away for centuries.

Even worse worse, some of the best reserves are not in the West.