As the market for plug-in vehicles grows, so does the demand for the materials associated with production, particularly lithium and cobalt, which are used in Li-on batteries. The DOE’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI) is focused on recycling and reducing the demand for rare metals that may experience shortages in the future. The agency is also… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "cobalt"
Tesla on the way to eliminating cobalt from its batteries
Battery makers are keen to reduce their use of costly and controversial cobalt. Half the world’s supply of the metallic element comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war-torn land in which child labor is common. Worse yet, the stuff is getting expensive – cobalt prices have climbed to their highest level in a… Read more »
New report analyzes global market for recycled lithium and cobalt
In a new analysis of the global end-of-life value chain for lithium-ion batteries, consultancy Creation Inn predicts that the total amount of recycled lithium could reach 5,800 tons (30,000 tons lithium carbonate equivalent) in 2025, 9 percent of the total lithium battery supply, while the amount of cobalt from recycled batteries is expected to reach… Read more »
BMW takes steps to ensure more responsible production of cobalt
And the dirty little secret of EVs is…cobalt. The metallic element is used in significant quantities in EV batteries. Unfortunately, about half the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a war-torn land in which working conditions are bad, and child labor is common. In 2014, as many as 40,000 children worked… Read more »
Analyzing heat-driven decay in nickel-cobalt-aluminum batteries
A set of three recent studies funded by the Korean government investigated a family of lithium-ion batteries composed of nickel, cobalt and aluminum. NCA batteries offer high energy density, but degrade significantly with each charge/discharge cycle. The high heat of vehicle environments can intensify the degradation, and even cause complete battery failure. Researchers at the… Read more »
South 8 demonstrates lithium nickel manganese oxide battery electrolyte
South 8 Technologies, a developer of liquefied gas electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries, has demonstrated high performance with cobalt-free, low-nickel battery cells. This work is funded by the DOE’s EVs4ALL program. South 8 has partnered with an unnamed automotive OEM on the project. The EVs4ALL effort aims to create a reliable, affordable battery that charges quickly and… Read more »
Aqua Metals is building a more sustainable battery recycling ecosystem
Q&A with Aqua Metals execs Steve Cotton and David Regan Regardless of the claims made in Facebook memes, Li-ion batteries are eminently recyclable, and current recycling methods cause far less environmental damage than the well-documented depredations of the petroleum industry. However, as sustainability is central to the mission of the EV industry, we need to… Read more »
Mack LR Electric refuse vehicle delivered to Coastal Waste & Recycling
US truck maker Mack Trucks, a subsidiary of Volvo, has delivered a Mack LR Electric refuse vehicle to Florida-based Coastal Waste & Recycling. Nextran Truck Centers will provide service and support. Coastal Waste & Recycling is also piloting Volvo Construction Equipment’s CE EC230 Electric 23-ton excavator. The Mack LR Electric features two-stage regenerative braking and… Read more »
ION Storage Systems achieves milestone with its anodeless solid-state battery
ION Storage Systems, a Maryland-based manufacturer of solid-state batteries, has announced that its anodeless and compressionless SSB achieved a key threshold with its first market deployment with the US military. ION says its SSB successfully exceeded 125 cycles with less than 5% capacity degradation in performance, offering the potential for more than 1,000 cycles in… Read more »
MIT chemists develop an organic battery cathode for EVs
MIT researchers have designed a new lithium-ion battery using an organic cathode that contains no cobalt or nickel. In a new study, the researchers showed that this material an conduct electricity at similar rates as cobalt batteries, and could be produced at much lower cost. The new battery also has comparable storage capacity and charges… Read more »