New tech pulls lithium from dead batteries cheaper than you can buy it

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• Regna@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Marginally lower cost over 500 possible cycles under ideal conditions… this does not take into account other pollutants it may cause or the human element. Still, very positive as a total, as this is a resource a way hitherto untapped (unless you count risky social media innovatives who almost burn up their homes making lithium batteries from vapes and whatnot).

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  • someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Mining costs are probably subject to more increases, as things get harder to access and environmental laws tighten

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    • Regna@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Without this kind of progress described (meaning reutilising, refining or reprocessing lithium), mining might become even more brutal to keep costs down for investors and corporate buyers, but remain ever more expensive for consumers.

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• Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  The cost will come down further with scale. The great thing about that is that dead lithium batteries will have value, so people will be much less inclined to throw them in the trash or dump them elsewhere

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  • dublet@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    The great thing about that is that dead lithium batteries will have value

    One day with my mountain of disused electronics, I will strike it rich.

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• someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  What’s more, the researchers say the method is much more affordable than other battery-based lithium-harvesting techniques, costing about US$12.70 per kilogram of lithium recovered.

  That’s in comparison to acid leaching, which runs about $81-462 per kilogram and produces chemical waste, and high-heat smelting, which costs $36-126 per kilogram and is more inefficient at separating out lithium from other elements. Based on these findings, the team says its method could be the first commercially viable way to recapture lithium from dead batteries.

  Indeed, according to Daily Metal Prices, lithium costs $13.17 per kilo on the open market as of the time of writing. So this method actually comes out cheaper than just buying the stuff.

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• Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Blocked: adblock detected, wouldn’t load the page

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  • kiol@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    archive.is/Zb2li

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    • demonsword@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Blocked: vpn detected. Well, not really blocked, but anything that forces me to do images captcha for Google’s benefit just isn’t worth my time and patience

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