To cite just one example of how un-costed Net Zero is, Michaux notes that “in theory” there are enough global reserves of nickel and lithium if they are exclusively used to produce batteries for electric vehicles. But there is not enough cobalt, and more will need to be discovered. It gets much worse. All the new batteries have a useful working life of only 8-10 years, so replacements will need to be regularly produced. “This is unlikely to be practical, which suggests the whole EV battery solution may need to be re-thought and a new solution is developed that is not so mineral intensive,”
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Lithium and Cobalt are elements. They do not get consumed or destroyed when a battery gets old. They get … calcified in a way that prevents electric charge from storing or releasing correctly.
An old battery can be almost completely recycled, like 98% of it, to create a new battery. Recycling will become the norm as soon as costs of recycling fall below the costs of mining.
So we only need enough lithium and cobalt for all the batteries in use at any given time.
This is just FUD to dissuade people from electric cars. They wrote similar articles in the early 1900s to scare people away from gasoline powered carts. Horses are reliable they said! Your horse won’t break down for no reason! Horse food is available everywhere grass grows, where are you going to get gasoline for your fancy cart? Look what happened.
Recycle lithium? Its a monofuel, which doesn't need oxygen to combust, its reacts violently when exposed to water and the only real way to put a lithium fire out is to bury it in dry sand.
I looked into recycling 18650 batteries some time ago and found out how dangerous it is. You could catch your house in fire if you try this domestically, and if you try to claim on your home insurance and the insurers find out the cause they will not pay you anything. Just think of the insurance premiums for a company that tries this?
Doesn't need Oxygen to combust? What then does it react with? Are you aware that water is made of Oxygen?
Are you suggesting Lithium is impossible to recycle? How then do they refine it from ore?
I assure you, a battery can be recycled. It's just a matter of how.
There are more that a few monofuels, lithium is one and there is another I worked with in the aviation industry called AVPIN. I believe it was also known as isopropyl nitrate, its very nasty stuff. It was used to start gas turbines because it expands very quickly when ignited, it spins the engines up very quickly.
Monofuels contain an oxidizer such as the nitro group and does need an external oxidizer (Merriam-Webster)
Lithium can be recycled but it is very hazardous, even a mobile phone transmission could ignite it, believe it or not. Just don't ask me to get into recycling lithium, that's a big nope.
...the Amish didn't get your memo...
Yes, there are always exceptions. I intend to keep a gas powered V8 until I die, but I also have an electric vehicle and do not expect to stop buying them either.