There are many varieties of Li Ion to choose from. At this point in
time, Li Ion appears to be the primary secondary, so to speak, battery
choice. :-)
Lead acid, much like other legacy technologies, will take some time to
fade into the background. It is simply a matter of time.
Lead acid batteries _claim_ to be 95%+ recycled, but the actual lead
usage figures (from the lead industry's own website) tell a different
story.
About 50% of all lead used comes from recycled lead, but the other 50%
comes from lead mines. This 50/50 mix has been the case for at least a
decade. About 80% of all lead is used in the production of lead-acid
batteries. (Again, these figures are right from the lead industry's
website.) If you think about that for just a moment, it becomes apparent
that at _least_ 30% of lead acid batteries must be escaping recycling.
(Likely more than 30% since some fraction of the other lead use products
are indeed recycled.)
Obviously, the lead industry's claim that 95% of lead-acid batteries
cannot be correct. I suspect that 95% of the lead-acid batteries that
manage to enter the gates of the recycling facility manage to be
recycled, rather than 95% of _all_ lead-acid batteries are recycled.
Numerous lead smelter facilities have ended up as super-fund sites. For
a brief period in my life, I lived in what was discovered to be in the
plume of such a super-fund site. Globeville, CO. They removed the top
few inches of soil from the entire neighborhood, carted it away, and
replaced it. Thankfully, I was not there during the years that the
smelter was in operation. I know people that were, however, and they
were very obviously affected.
Another interesting fact is that there are about 2500 _reportable_
injuries from lead-acid batteries in ICE cars in the USA every year,
mostly due to accidental hydrogen explosions. There are certainly more
unreported injuries, and incidents.
No doubt, we will move on from lead-acid batteries.
Bill D.
On 10/31/2022 11:15 AM, Mark Abramowitz via EV wrote:
Don’t forget that recycling of lead acid batteries contaminates the communities
around them, creating major health problems to those near them and downwind.
- Mark
Sent from my Fuel Cell powered iPhone
On Oct 30, 2022, at 1:56 PM, Lee Hart via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote:
Peri Hartman wrote:
There's been a move back to LiFePo because it doesn't use cobalt. What
else can be done?
EV List Lackey wrote:
Nickel metal hydride?
There are actually lots of rechargeable battery technologies that could be
used. Each has different strengths and weaknesses.
It's unfortunate that manufacturers tend to prefer a monoculture. "One thing to rule
them all". But anything that you try to apply to 8 billion people is bound to cause
unforeseen problems. Different applications should really use different solutions.
Lead-acid is cheap, and widely recyclable. But it's relatively heavy and has a
low energy density. It still makes sense for short-range EVs like golf carts,
fork lifts, scooters, etc. Also, don't forget that virtually every ICE is still
using lead-acids.
Nickel-based batteries (nickel-iron, nickel-cadmium, nimh) have higher energy
density and longer life, and the materials are relatively abundant. Nickel is
expensive, but fairly easy to recycle (though it's not being widely done for
batteries).
Lithium-based batteries have the highest energy density, but are expensive,
less safe, and (at least for the present) not being recycled.
And, there are lots of other chemistries that could be used. We should be
exploring *every* option; not just blindly picking one.
Lee Hart
--
"#3 pencils and quadrille pads." -- Seymour Cray, when asked
what CAD tools he used to design the Cray I supercomputer
--
Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com
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