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Can Flow Batteries Finally Beat Lithium?
(spectrum.ieee.org)
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this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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Lithium batteries are an ecological nightmare and I can't wait for better technology
What makes a lithium iron phosphate battery an ecological nightmare?
If it still relies on mined lithium, it's some pretty bad stuff. Come to find out mining isn't super great for the environment.
Much of the lithium is mined in Australia or via salt brines in Chile.
It’s not worse environmentally than the other mined materials that go into a vehicle.
That doesn't make it a good thing.
Ok so let’s drill into it further.
Lithium gets mined once and then enters a circular system where batteries can be recycled after 10+ years in service.
It doesn’t exist in isolation either. While lithium is mined, its competitors (oil, coal, gas) are too with significantly higher environmental costs. They’re also not reusable.
Zinc Bromide flow batteries look like a great idea for static energy storage but if you’re worried about mining, I have bad news.
Are lithium batteries getting recycled? Because there are millions of pounds of disposable vapes that just get fuckin yote directly into a landfill. Then they crack and leak PFAS into the ground water.
Large car batteries can become second life static energy storage before being completely recycled .
This is one of those instances where capitalism helps us out - there’s money to be made in old batteries.
Single use vapes are pretty damn disgusting all around TBH.
So we should continue mining single-use hydrocarbons because disposable vapes exist?
That's definitely not what I said lmfao I said I'm excited for better battery technology.
But it does mean it isn't any worse as well. Plus lithium can be recycled.
Cobalt: https://earth.org/cobalt-mining/
There is zero cobalt in a lithium iron phosphate battery.
Is that the most commonly used type of batteries in EVs?
I'm not sure on the global percentage, but they're becoming far more common. Most of the top selling EVs where I live (Tesla Model Y/3, BYD Atto 3, BYD Dolphin, MG ZS EV) all use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.
They have a somewhat lower energy density so they've been avoided, but they're way safer and better eco wise to the point that they're getting uptake
This is irrelevant. First, there are chemistries not using cobalt, as explained already. Second, elemental cobalt is infinitely recyclable as all elemental metals, thus we don't need to mine that much more, just like we don't mine as much iron ore as we did centuries ago (relative to overall consumption). Yes, we still mine a lot of iron ore, but we recycle a lot as well.
This cobalt must be mined first to be recycled later, and being infinity recyclable doesn't mean it will be, for example if it's cheaper to mine new cobalt instead of recycling.
It was already mined, it only needs to be recycled if we continue using old battery chemistries. Which is unlikely.