The Magic of Lithium Battery Recycling.
The paper I will reference and briefly excerpt is this one:
The Foreseeable Future of Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries: Advanced Upcycling for Toxic Electrolyte, Cathode, and Anode from Environmental and Technological Perspectives, Lingen Zhang, Yu Zhang, Zhenming Xu, and Ping Zhu Environmental Science & Technology 2023 57 (36), 13270-13291
We hear that energy storage, which as a consequence of the 2nd law of thermodynamics destroys exergy (i.e. wastes energy), is "green," this because energy storage is supposed to represent a band aid for the fact that so called "renewable energy" is unreliable and unpredictable.
Like so called "renewable energy," itself, however energy storage is mass intensive and thus unsustainable.
If the task at hand is to address climate change, so called "renewable energy" is useless. Things are getting worse, faster than ever.
I covered the mass requirements of this scheme referring to the German word Dunkelflaute in noting that covering a Dunkelflaute event that took place near the end of 2022 in Germany, the world supply of cobalt by 3163%, using popular "percent talk" that is often used to obscure the fact that so called "renewable energy" is doing nothing, zero, nada, zilch to address climate change.
The Number of Tesla Powerwalls Required That Would Address the Current German Dunkleflaute Event.
Storing energy is not the same as producing primary energy; every time energy is stored, it is wasted. Storing energy under the assumption, which has never been, not once, in either the 20th or 21st century been realized, that primary energy is free of dependence on dangerous fossil fuels, raises the requirement for primary energy production, and since primary energy production is overwhelmingly dirty and dependent on fossil fuels, storing energy makes things worse, not better.
(An exception for this reality is where stored energy is recovered from energy that would otherwise be wasted, as in a hybrid car, but these exceptions are of marginal value at best.)
The battery advocates, who are only slightly better than the people here and elsewhere who sell fossil fuels by rebranding them as "hydrogen," are undeterred by reality and insist that batteries are "green," well, because...because...because...well...because...well some day, for sure, after all this soothsaying, the "renewable energy" nirvana will come.
...along with Jesus, I suppose...
You know why they make this argument about "green" batteries?
Because, like plastics, batteries can be recycled.
Recycling is magic, you know. It's working great for plastics, isn't it?
We all separate our plastics, and dutifully put them out for the "recycling" truck to pick up.
...working just great...fabulous...stupendous...problem, um, solved...
We'll recycle our batteries, won't we?
Let me except a couple of paragraphs of the paper cited at the outset.
However, LIBs have a limited cycle life of 8–10 years. (8) The scrap volume of lithium batteries around the world will reach nearly 11 million tons by 2030 according to the estimation, while China will reach 5.7 million tons. (9) However, less than 5% of spent LIBs are recovered globally. (10) If the spent LIBs are not properly treated, their electrode materials and electrolyte will not only wreak severe environmental pollution but also waste metal resources. (11,12) China is the world’s largest country in the use and scrap of LIBs. The secondary resource market of lithium metal, focusing on spent LIBs, has gradually formed and has a huge market space.
How to reduce or even eliminate pollution generated during the resource recovery of spent LIBs is an urgent problem to be solved. The LIB primarily consists of separator, electrolyte, graphite anode, and lithium-rich cathode. (13−15) The following have pollution potential in the LIBs recovery process: (1) The active lithium-rich cathode material LiMxOy (M = one or more metal/non-metal elements, such as Ni, Co, Mn, P, etc.) is easily reacted in a series of chemical reactions (such as oxidation, hydrolysis, and decomposition with acid or strong oxidant) to produce toxic metal oxides or gases. (16−18) These toxic elements or gases will gradually accumulate in the atmosphere, water, or soil, causing serious pollution and elevated environmental pH. (19) (2) The electrolyte of LIBs is composed of carbonate ester organic solvent, electrolyte LiMxFy (M = B, P, As, S, etc.), and additives. (20) The electrolyte contains a large amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are easily volatilized once exposed to the air. (21,22) In addition, these organics react with acids, bases, strong oxidants, and water to form aldehydes, alcohols, and ketones, causing organic pollution. (23) Lithium salt LiPF6 in the electrolyte will also decompose into highly toxic substances PF5, HF, and LiF even when exposed to just a trace amount of water, resulting in fluoride pollution. (24) (3) Waste anode material graphite contains Cu, Li, and other impurities, which cannot be used for high-value-added utilization and can only be used as fuel for combustion. (25,26) The process produces a large amount of greenhouse gases and is accompanied by dust pollution. Notably, many studies (27−29) have shown that pollution poses weighty hazards to not only the ecological environment but also humankind’s wellness. A study by Landrigan et al. (30) suggested that the strongest inducement from the environment for illness and premature mortality is pollution. And it is estimated that the number of premature deaths caused by diseases induced by environmental pollution in 2015 accounted for approximately 16% (9 million) of global deaths. Moreover, traditional recycling also destroys the original structure of LIB materials, resulting in the recycled products not being directly used to make new batteries. Thus, there is an urgent need to exploit eco-friendly, efficient, and low-cost recycling technologies and to strengthen theoretical research in this domain.
In the traditional re-resource recycling for retirement LIBs, the cathode has turned into the recovery focus due to higher economic benefits compared with those of other components. The recovery of LIBs has traditionally been mainly through metallurgical methods including pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy (leaching, chemical extraction, and precipitation). (31−33) The valuable metals (Ni, Co, Mn, Li, etc.) from cathode are generally recovered in the form of simple compounds such as Ni2O3, Co2O3, MnO, and Li2CO3 in the above technical process. (34) However, although today’s most advanced hydrometallurgy has gradually become the preferred industrial method to recover valuable metals from cathodes, the heavy use of chemicals will undoubtedly cause huge pollution and high costs...
If any of this seems unpleasant, don't worry, be happy. Go see a psychic soothsayer who will assure you that everything will be fine "by 2040" or "by 2050," or "by 2060."
This should work out nearly as well as all the "by 1990," and "by 2000," and "by 2010" and "by 2020" stuff I heard throughout my adult life; I'm hardly young, but it's not reality, but "the thought" that counts, no?
History will not forgive us, nor should it.
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