Comment on Solid-state battery hits 381 Wh/kg as Taiwan mass production begins
Allero@lemmy.today 4 days agoLithium is relatively rare, and very environmentally damaging to mine. Recycling is absolutely a must, but, as with any recycling, the recovery is not 100%.
Sodium is obviously hugely abundant and we already have relatively eco-friendly salt mining for many centuries.
keepthepace@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 4 days ago
“relatively” does a lot of work here. Lithium is not going to be a scarce ressource any time soon: https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-lithium.pdf
Allero@lemmy.today 4 days ago
TIL.
Thanks for sharing!
Tobberone@feddit.nu 8 hours ago
I’m not saying it is nothing, but the environmental cost of 1 car battery has to be compared to the environmental damage of 1 tonne of gasoline/year it is replacing. So 500 kg of batteries or 10-15 tonnes of gasoline for a typical car…
keepthepace@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 4 days ago
Absolutely, I only commented on the scarcity aspect.
The local pollutions of mining is a subject I never dived enough into and I wonder how much of it is really necessary and how much hinges on the fact that you always go to the lowest bidder who is often the one with the lowest environmental regulations.
Minerals are very fungible. Even if it is possible to mine one in an environmentally friendly way, in a socially acceptable manner, the person undercutting you by 10% by using slavery and dumping toxic waste in the environment is going to win.
When I started looking into that, I realized that this was much more than a simple technical and environmental discussion but a broader criticism of the global trade system.
Allero@lemmy.today 4 days ago
Also true, and actually greatly applicable to lithium mining. There are ways to make it greener, they are just more expensive and thereby less competitive.