What happen to electric car batteries

The materials for the battery of your future electric car will be extracted from the bottom of the ocean

Underwater mining is called to play a leading role in the process of massification of the electric vehicle. The companies are striving to position themselves in a key industry for the development of the electric car. At the bottom of the ocean there are significant amounts of raw materials necessary for the manufacture of batteries for electric cars.

Mining companies are going to great lengths to obtain the raw materials needed for electric vehicle batteries , even from miles below the ocean surface. The behemoths of the mining industry are racing to tap into these deep sea reserves, striking deals, developing mining processes and equipment, and just as importantly striving to be green.

Meanwhile, environmental groups want to slow the rush by mining companies until more information is available about the impact on this largely untouched area. Several automakers have joined a moratorium on sourcing metals from underwater mining.

The treasure hidden in the depths of the oceans

Vast fields of rocks containing high concentrations of nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese cover what are known as abyssal plains . All of them are raw materials necessary for the manufacture of batteries for electric cars. Some essential resources to materialize the process of change to the electric vehicle that the automotive industries of Europe and the United States have initiated.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the area constitutes 70% of the ocean floor and is found at depths of more than 3 kilometers. It is the largest habitat on Earth.

Pebble- or potato-sized rocks lining the seafloor, called polymetallic nodules, contain much more nickel and cobalt than terrestrial reserves. Land mining of these materials is hampered by dependence on China, environmental impact and the use of slave labor in Africa.

There are 274 million metric tons of nickel within a 2.7 million square kilometer area of ​​the Pacific Ocean known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (between Mexico and Hawaii), according to a Nature report published in 2020. A figure that contrasts with the 95 million metric tons of existing known land reserves . It also highlights that there are 44 million metric tons of cobalt on the seabed compared to 7.5 million on land.

New technologies to obtain raw materials from the seabed

The acceleration of the transition process to the electric vehicle has triggered a fever for the so-called "underwater gold". Mining companies are developing technologies like tractor-sized vacuum cleaners and autonomous robots to collect the polymetallic nodules.

Obtaining tons of rocks at a depth of 3 or more km below the surface of the sea may seem like a complex and expensive process, but the truth is that much of the technology is already developed thanks to the companies that operate the oil platforms that exist in the world. high seas.

Underwater mining has not yet been developed on a large scale. An expected benefit is that the process includes loading ore mined from the seabed onto ships. This will save steps in the supply chain. Cobalt, for example, is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and subsequently shipped to South Africa, where it is shipped to China on ships for further processing. The cobalt, once treated, is sent to battery factories.

The ecological impact of underwater mining

BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo, Google and Samsung have signed a moratorium and have promised not to obtain minerals from the seabed until the ecological impact is clarified . Major environmental organizations like Greenpeace also advocate waiting. However, there are certain entities and countries that are supporting this practice. The Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority has awarded three exploration permits to mineral companies this year. The island nation of Nauru also plans to request permits from the international authority with the aim of exploiting these resources from 2023.

Proponents of underwater mining argue that it is less problematic given the location of the resources on land and its associated environmental, geopolitical and labor problems. Experts point out that any type of seabed mining ultimately eliminates both species and habitat.

Different investigations are currently being carried out with the aim of obtaining the necessary information to reach a clear conclusion about the effects of mining on marine habitats and species. General Motors, one of the colossi of the US automotive industry, does not rule out betting on underwater mining. However, he warns that an evaluation based on science and based on environmental footprint data will be carried out beforehand.

What happens to electric car batteries when they run out?, How long do electric car batteries last

What do we do with the batteries once their life is over?

What occurs to the batteries in electric cars when they run out? Despite the fact that electric car sales have not taken off in Spain as they should, the fact that they are being registered at an increasing rate means that this type of vehicle is gradually becoming more common. Our lungs may enjoy this, but the drama of pollution does not go away. And what happens to the electric car batteries after they have served their purpose?

Sales of electric cars

The markets are taking their time accepting electric cars as passenger vehicles, despite proposals from the administration, environmental organisations, and business. These non-polluting vehicles are only now becoming common in a few nations, including Norway, which led the world in registrations in the first half of the year with 56.2% of the total (43,976 units). With 14.4%, 11.3%, and 10.1% of all registered cars of this sort, respectively, consumers from Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands are likewise in the lead. These vehicles are still being used to a very limited extent elsewhere in the area. In Spain, where 8,958 passenger automobiles out of a total of 692,472 were registered between January and June, 1.3%, according to data from the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers.

The electric car has three major problems , which are what prevent its sales from skyrocketing. The manufacturers are working on these three situations, which makes their registrations grow little by little; Now, what will happen to the batteries of these electric vehicles when they run out?

And what happens to the electric car batteries when they run out?

Electric car batteries , most of them lithium, become a problem once their useful life is over. And it is that ending them can be a business opportunity, although there is still no clear protocol on what to do with them, and the process is expensive.

Electric car batteries are usually heavy, have a complex design and their construction process is based on stacked and rolled plates. And what to do with them once they are exhausted is a challenge for the industry. An example of this is China, where the electric car has been a reality for longer.

The ideal would be to try to recycle them, since even if they run out, they still have components that can be useful, so the ideal is to recover them to be able to use them again. The downside is that the process is not easy.

The battery recycling process

The electric car battery recycling process itself is complex. Two processes can currently be carried out. One, the cheapest, is to shred the battery that reaches the recycling plant. The downside is that few raw materials are recovered. The second is the painstaking disassembly of the battery, a more costly process in both time and money.

In addition, the battery has acids and different toxic substances that must be stored, since they cannot be recycled, so the industry also faces the creation of cemeteries for these substances. 

As our colleagues from Computer Hoy explain , to get a ton of lithium, 250 tons of this mineral are needed, or 750 tons of lithium-rich brine. If one ton of lithium is to be obtained from recycled batteries , it would take 250 car batteries to make them. 

What the law in the EU says about batteries

A piece of information: according to reports from El Diario , in the European Union, only 5% of lithium batteries are recycled . Most of it ends up stored in drawers, accumulated in landfills or incinerated. This entails two problems: one, for the environment, and two, it generates dependency on the supply.

According to current European laws, producers of electric vehicle batteries (considered industrial) must bear the costs of collection, management and recycling. But, as in China, Europe has not developed technical standards for recycling electric car batteries either.