The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Ive actually been to a lead and zinc smelters.. the place was dripping
sulphuric acid..and the old batteries were simply tipped into the
process at some point to recycle the lead. However we went there to
install toxic metal detectors, for the outflows, to monitor mercury and
cadmium levels..they are not that bad. Most of the nasties can be
separated out, at a cost. So although there are issue, I don';t see
them as insuperable. At some level to maintain an industrial or post
industrial lifestyle means SOME form of waste will be generated. You
have to literally pick your poison..ultimately the best battery material
is lithium anyway, which is plentiful and abundant almost everywhere, it
just takes a lot of power to extract. But with power cheaper, its not
such a big deal.

It is this issue which interests me because AIUI conversion to a system
based upon widespread use of stored electricity in homes and vehicles,
would lead to an increase of an order of magnitude at least (if not two
or more orders of magnitude) in the use of battery systems reliant upon
such materials. Perhaps hydrogen cells or motors would be a better
solution for stored energy, assuming that electricity isn't too costly?
However, as I inferred before, I realise that I do not know all of the
facts.

--
Dave N

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