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https://theconversation.com/blood-cobalt-is-disappearing-from-batteries-and-cheaper-cleaner-batteries-are-arriving-263808>
"You might have heard the common claim that electric cars aren’t really green –
that their lithium-ion batteries rely on “blood” minerals such as cobalt, mined
in terrible conditions.
The critique had some truth to it. But this claim is no longer accurate.
Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have been shifting away from cobalt because
it’s expensive, toxic and ethically fraught.
What’s replacing it? Cheaper lithium-ion battery chemistries based on lithium
iron phosphate (LFP), which avoid cobalt entirely. If you remember high-school
chemistry, you’ll remember batteries have an anode and a cathode. The anode is
nearly always graphite. But the cathode can be made from many different
minerals and compounds.
This means battery makers have a great deal of choice over which minerals to
include. There’s huge innovation taking place in batteries, as the market grows
and diversifies across vehicles and energy storage. Even cheaper chemistries
are emerging based around salt (sodium-ion), while high-performance solid state
batteries are coming close to reality."
And of course there’s plenty of “blood oil” in the fossil fuel industry.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
