Solution Fluency Lithium-Ion Batteries

Define

Electric cars have become very popular lately and are known to be safe, but that is not all true. The problem with electric cars is actually with their batteries. Their lithium-ion batteries contain nickel that produces toxins when they are mined. Firstly what are lithium-ion batteries? These are rechargeable batteries made up of positive and negative electrodes along with an electrolyte. The negative electrode is made from carbon or graphite and the positive is made from metal oxide. As said before this specific type of battery is used in electric vehicles or EV’s. Secondly, this problem includes an element that creates toxic when it is mined, this element is nickel. When it creates toxins it can be dangerous for the environment because it affects your health. If this specific toxin is a hazardous chemical (like the one used in EVs) it can be dangerous because it can explode, burn or react with other chemicals. Therefore lithium-ion batteries are dangerous. The nickel in the Li-ion batteries is mined but through that process, it creates problems with the environment.

 

Discover

The has been a very minimal amount of the previous solution for this problem. This is mostly because electric cars are fairly new. But a solution that was used was to try to find another battery for the car itself. Different batteries used in electric cars include Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) and Lithium Sulphur (Li-S). Both of these batteries were proved unuseful as they both contained elements that when mined can be harmful to the environment (lithium and nickel). They are harmful to the environment because they can cause environmental and health costs. These could include pollution from nickel through its smelting and mining. The toxicity that is created is from the dust in the air as well as concentrations of metal that were produced by the smelting of nickel. Another way nickel can be harmful is that there is a very high chance that global warming could be caused by the process of mining it as it is the eighth highest of 63 metals to be mined in the year 2008. As stated before nickel can be very harmful but so can lithium. This is because there is no safe way to recycle lithium-ion batteries and they are highly reactive and corrosive. This can happen because they are easily overheated and can cause spontaneous combustion. Even though most people think that using a lithium battery is considered ‘green’, technically they aren’t perfectly green because they release toxins and cannot be recycled. The previous solutions didn’t work and this was because they weren’t necessarily new ideas as they both had elements that were already used when making the Li-ion battery. Through the research of what has been done to solve this problem not very much was found but that leads me to a possible solution.

Dream

As stated before electric vehicles are becoming very popular very fast so it is important for them to be as safe as they can for the environment considering there will be a lot of people using it. Car batteries in this day are made from LI-ions. They aren’t the best for the environment even though they may be better than cars that use gasoline. When talking about batteries within these electric cars we know that the main type of battery used in Lithium-ion batteries. Though electric cars are known to be very good for the environment they also have their fair share of disadvantages. For example, there is no safe way to recycle these batteries as well as the fact that they release toxins. So, in turn, this problem could be solved by using another type of batter, one that does not include nickel or cobalt as that is what seems to be the reason why toxins are emitted. So in order to find a battery that is greener than a lithium battery a mixture had to be used.

Deliver

The solution that was used is a molten salt battery. Molten salt batteries are used for both busses and cars with public transportation in urban areas. There are many types of molten salt batteries, for example, there is sodium-sulfur batteries which have a molybdenum interior or a Lithium Sulfer battery. But Sodium Sulfer is one of the safer options. Compared to other EV batteries this battery is made by using salt. This type of battery works by using the reaction of 2 electrodes one molten sulfur and the other molten sodium. This causes cell reactions. In a simulation of electrical consumption molten salt batteries were known to have the lowest energy consumption. This battery helps the environment due to the fact that it doesn’t release toxins since it doesn’t contain nickel. A molten salt battery will only make the environment cleaner. But there is a negative side to this, which is that it freezes easily and needs to be warm most of the time. This is the best choice of batteries from an energy consumption point of view.

 

Debrief

The process of my assignment didn’t start the best way as my partner and I couldn’t find a topic we were both interested in and related to what needed to be done. But we did end up finding a problem that was hard in a way because most people think that electric cars are good for the environment but for our topic, we had to go against that. When making a solution we were able to analyze the problem and fix it in a creative way. The product was a well thought out assignment. An improvement that could have been making in my assignment was my solution as I only used a couple of sources. This isn’t bad but I feel like if I were to use more cites my information would be more valid. Another improvement that could’ve been made is if I was to dream of another solution as I only had one which was to use another battery. This could’ve helped me to make more connections with another solution.

Sources

Beam, The. “Cobalt: the Toxic Hazard in Lithium Batteries That Puts Profit before People and the Planet.” Medium, TheBeamMagazine, 26 Apr. 2018, medium.com/thebeammagazine/cobalt-the-toxic-hazard-in-lithium-batteries-that-puts-profit-before-people-and-the-planet-ae5a63e0f57c.

Brueckner, Martin. “Not so Fast: Why the Electric Vehicle Revolution Will Bring Problems of Its Own.” The Conversation, 27 Oct. 2019, theconversation.com/not-so-fast-why-the-electric-vehicle-revolution-will-bring-problems-of-its-own-94980.

Davison, Alan. “Molten Salt Battery.” Molten Salt Battery – Liquid Metal Battery, Info on Renewable Molten Salt Batteries, www.altenergy.org/renewables/molten-salt-battery.html.

“Department of Health.” What You Know Can Help You – An Introduction to Toxic Substances, www.health.ny.gov/environmental/chemicals/toxic_substances.htm.

“How Green Are Home Batteries? The Environmental Impact of Lithium-Ion.” Solar.com, 1 July 2019, www.solar.com/learn/how-green-are-home-batteries-the-environmental-impact-of-lithium-ion/.

“Is Your Electric Car Really Green?” A\J – Canada’s Environmental Voice, 8 June 2015, www.alternativesjournal.ca/energy-and-resources/your-electric-car-really-green.

Lightfoot, Michael. “Three Steps to Clean up Electric Vehicle Supply Chains.” World Economic Forum, www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/clean-vehicles-have-a-dirty-secret-and-it-s-time-we-took-action/.

Opray, Max. “Nickel Mining: the Hidden Environmental Cost of Electric Cars.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/aug/24/nickel-mining-hidden-environmental-cost-electric-cars-batteries.

“Sodium Sulfur Battery.” Sodium Sulfur Battery – an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/sodium-sulfur-battery.

University of Nottingham. “Rechargeable, High-Temperature, Molten Salt Battery.” Tech Briefs, 6 May 2019, www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/tb/techbriefs/energy/34150.

C Iclodean et al 2017 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng.