Li-Ion Batteries Get Green Seal of Approval 69
thecarchik writes "It is not an easy task to compare the environmental effects of battery powered cars to those caused by conventionally fueled automobiles. The degree to which manufacture, usage and disposal of the batteries used to store the necessary electrical energy are detrimental to the environment is not exactly known. Now, for the first time, a team of Empa scientists have made a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) or ecobalance of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, in particular the chemically improved (i.e. more environmentally friendly) version of the ones most frequently used in electric vehicles. Researchers decided to find out for sure. They calculated the ecological footprints of electric cars fitted with Li-ion batteries, taking into account all possible relevant factors, from those associated with the production of individual parts all the way through to the scrapping of the vehicle and the disposal of the remains, including the operation of the vehicle during its lifetime."
Re:hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
Re:hmmm (Score:1, Informative)
Not trolling, but due to the mining, production, added weight to vehicles and disposal of the lithium makes an old muscle car's carbon emissions look appealing versus a hybrid.
From TFA:
If some of the most vocal anti-EV spokespersons are to be believed, mining the minerals and metals used in electric car batteries are much more damaging to the planet than any gasoline car.
Thankfully, it turns out they are wrong. Making an electric car really doesn’t take up as many of the earth’s resources as previously thought.
You can read the rest of TFA from the link in TFS....
Re:Lithium peak (Score:5, Informative)
Not going to happen. [gas2.org]
Re:Hmm, the source is interesting (Score:5, Informative)
...but since there's no actual paper available...
Link to the actually available paper: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es903729a [acs.org]
Hasty Disposal (Score:3, Informative)
One thing that bothers me about seeing Li-Ion battery-powered devices everywhere these days is the way so many people view them as disposable, when in reality the battery is good for hundreds of charge/discharge cycles, and the device for many times that number.
Take for example the laptop I just bought secondhand today. It's a 2001 Gateway with a pentium 3 and the original li-ion battery. The battery is still capable of FOUR HOURS of constant web browsing and disk thrashing on a single charge. I paid $40 for this thing, and it performs just as well as any "netbook" for about 13% the price. My purchase was environment-agnostic, but if you don't want li-ion batteries going into landfills, finding ways to re-use them like I did is a good way to start.
Re:Hasty Disposal (Score:1, Informative)
One particular drawback to Li-ion batteries (of the type used in laptops) is that the battery degrades even when not being used. They degrade slower when lightly charged and stored at low temperature, but degrade much faster when near fully charged and/or warm.
The common use pattern where a laptop is plugged in for significant periods of time will degrade Li-ion batteries faster than anything else. The battery will be lucky to last more than 12 months under such conditions. I'm on my third battery in three years, after the first two reached the point where I got less than 5 minutes' charge out of them.
Lithium-ion batteries are good for many cycles, hold quite a lot of charge per unit mass, and don't suffer from the "memory effect", but are not long-lived.
Re:Hmm, the source is interesting (Score:5, Informative)
Um... huh?
Thanks, well they assume a battery technology that's not commercially available
Oh really? Then what are they putting in the Volt? Or the Leaf? LiMn2O4 is one of the most popular chemistries for EVs. Here, want to buy some? [ebay.com.sg]
To be fair, their wording could have been clearer. Nickel and cobalt-based li-ions currently dominate the market. But LiMn2O4 absolutely are already out on the market, and have been for years. Their main competitor is LiFePO4. Both chemistries offer much better cycle life, stability, and power than traditional cathodes, at the cost of lower energy density. They used to be a lot more expensive, but their prices have been falling, and they'll probably be cheaper within the next few years.
a maximum vehicle lifetime of 92k miles
No, they assume a vehicle lifespan of 240,000 km (pgs 2 and 4). They assume two batteries used per vehicle over it's lifespan (one replacement) -- even though most upcoming mass-market EVs are being *warrantied* for 8-10 years.
a lithium extraction technology that's low energy but unlikely to scale to widespread usage of the lithium for transportation
Huh? What they describe is the standard way of producing lithium carbonate. And energy to produce a product generally declines as you scale up, rather than increasing. And the lithium extraction is only 1.9% of the battery's energy consumption anyway. The biggest chunk is aluminum, at 15.1%. So even if you have to jump to spodumene, like they mention (you wouldn't jump straight there, by the way -- you'd first use lithium hydroxide, like is found in Nevada), it would hardly change the picture.
Lithium is just such a small part of the overall picture; the only reason people focus on it is it's in the name. As they make clear, it's the bulk metals (aluminum, copper, etc) and the roasting of the cathode that takes most of the energy of production.
and finally they don't take recycling into account but rather attribute all inputs to virgin materials.
They specifically note that recycling would *improve* the picture for BEVs (bottom of page 5 / top of page 6)
Still if you tweak the numbers towards a more realistic mix you still come out with battery powered vehicles being no worse than ICE unless the battery vehicle is primarily powered by coal.
Tweak nothing. That would take a complete rewrite with absurd bogus numbers to get a breakeven value. The comparison numbers aren't even close, and coal only increases the total energy 13.4% (page 4). BEVs blow ICEs away.
Re:Lithium peak (Score:4, Informative)
Please read the GP. Thanks.
Also, your numbers on how much lithium is used per EV is wrong. The leaf's battery pack is about 600lbs and contains 9 pounds of lithium (1.5%).
Re:Hasty Disposal (Score:3, Informative)
You and I have very difference opinions on notable degradation. 80% of original capacity .. is huge.
Under optimal conditions, Li batteries degrade just a few % per year. Under average conditions, 8-10% is fairly normal. Under poor conditions, 25-35% loss in a year is reasonable. And you could kill one entirely in less than a year under worst case conditions.