neptronix said:
The problem with recycling is the amount of energy it needs.
It takes a lot less energy to melt steel than to make steel from iron oar.
Lithium batteries aren't really recycled these days, mostly put in giant piles for us to figure out what to do with later ( if ever ).
Most of the Lithium batteries we've dealt with to this point were from consumer electronics. Many of those aren't user removable, and disposed of together with the device. Indeed, they're difficult to recycle due to all kinds of extra stuff that came with them. Many of them simply end up in landfills, without even any attempt to recycle.
It is a completely different story with EV battery packs. Those are large, homogeneous packs that can be correctly handled through EV manufacturers and third party recyclers. We will figure that out... once we actually have any sizeable amount of those coming up for recycling. So far what I'm seeing, even the the very first Leafs are still alive and kicking.
A recycling process has to filter out all kinds of metals. I'm sure it's an expensive or chemically intensive ( thus dirty ) process.
Or we could just sort through it better
Consumer electronics and appliances are likely the worst due to variance in metals in a small package.
Car bodies are a lot easier. A lot of the adhesives 'n stuff probably burns off in the metal slurry.
That is if you are to melt cars whole. Ideally most non-metallic stuff should be removed. Labor intensive ? Well, we collect a surcharge on lead-acid batteries. We should probably collect a surcharge on things like whole cars as well.
But i'm not referring really to the metal use. Moreso that a 4,800lbs car is pretty huge overkill for going to the grocery store and back, eh? it takes a lot of energy to form the car, and more energy to deconstruct it. A 4,800lbs car needs big brakes, big tires, big suspension components etc etc - as large as what you see on mondo sized trucks, and beats up the road as bad as a big truck.
Size doesn't matter when energy is free. I've just put a deposit on a Rivian. I know I can power it from PVs.
Heck even the smaller EVs like the Model 3 come in at a crazy 4000lbs figure fully loaded.
1000lb out of that is the battery. Difficult to build an extremely safe vehicle without using certain structural elements made out of traditional (heavy) alloys like steel.
The lighter the vehicle is, the less battery it needs.
True, but only to a point. Aerodynamic drag is the same for heavy and light vehicle of the same size and shape.
The less battery you need, the less mining you need to do.
That's an incorrect target objective. The correct objective would be a closed loop - once there is X amount of metal Y in circulation, no more is to be mined. Unless of course we're talking population (and thus consumer) growth, which is a separate issue.
You know what i'd love? an electric kei car that seats 2. But i'd be dead on the road, so.. it's an econobox and bicycle for me.
There is a company in Oregon that makes a vehicle they call FUV. They also publicly trade under the same ticker.
