Australia is starting to embrace new energy technologies..about time is all I can say. After all we are one of the hottest places on earth.. so going solar, for instance, is a no brainer. On last estimates Australia has the most home solar.. per capita.. in the world. One of our two major political parties is proposing a 40% CO2 emissions target reduction by 2040. They also want 50% of all new cars on our roads by 2030 to be electric battery-powered. Makes sense also for Australia to make our own EVs as we have huge deposits of both lithium and cobalt.. the two main metals used in electric vehicle batteries. The same political party plans to hit gas-guzzling luxury cars with a tax if they exceed a certain emission while ICE cars are to be phased out gradually during this time frame. All radical ideas.. and what you expect from a left leaning party. What these dreams will cost is anyone's guess as the said politician is rather reluctant to release costings at this stage. One thing is certain it will be many billions of taxpayer dollars.
@Craig Swanson It is widely argued that when considering the environmental damage inflicted by obtaining the minerals for the batteries, the EV equates to an IC vehicle. I do not believe that, however. Frank
You are correct. https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/renewable-energy/environmental-impacts All energy sources have some impact on our environment. Fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—do substantially more harm than renewable energy sources by most measures, including air and water pollution, damage to public health, wildlife and habitat loss, water use, land use, and global warming emissions.
Have you heard about this Frank? Could be game changing. https://www.createdigital.org.au/new-way-extracting-green-hydrogen-seawater/
Another hydrogen game changer?. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08...-csiro-game-changer-export-potential/10082514
Some more reading material for you Frank. https://smallcaps.com.au/lithium-au...al-energy-security-eliminating-nickel-cobalt/
US lithium major Albemarle and Australian engineering services company Civmec have joined forces to build Australia's biggest lithium processing plant at Kemerton in south-west Western Australia. Construction of the $1.3 billion plant will require around 300 staff and is expected to take place from mid-2019 to March 2021. The 89-hectare project will provide downstream processing services for spodumene concentrate from Talison Lithium’s Greenbushes mine, in which Albemarle holds a 49 per cent interest. The Greenbushes hard-rock lithium mine will feed the Kemerton plant.
@Craig Swanson Hadn't heard about this exact process, but fact remains separating water's constituent's remains a very energy-intensive process.
@Craig Swanson A membrane which converts hydrogen gas to ammonia and back again? My guess is, science fiction.
Curiously, or maybe not so much, Lithium is in high demand by the folks who build hydrogen bombs. The U.S. determined in the 1950s that the fusion-reaction element, heavy-hydrogen, or Deuterium, which is a gas, that making it more difficult to render usable fusion reactions, could be chemically-combined with another element, allowing packaging, measuring, transporting, as well as using, Deuterium in the production of H-bombs. The stuff is Lithium Deuteride, a compound of Lithium and Deuterium (heavy hydrogen). I am wondering about the "undertow" present when considering the lithium source shown, as being a boon to making batteries, when the use in H-bomb making might make it far more desirable.
Smart minds at the CSIRO..and no mistake. If anyone can do it they can. If you doubt me.. check out this. https://csiropedia.csiro.au/achievements-by-impact-area/#AstronomyandSpace
That does not sound good. we have to see rogue states like North Korea and Iran dont get their hands on too much lithium then.
I hope I presume right and you are Australian Craig - I'm for anything that helps this Planet survive just wish it wasn't so late in the day
Has anyone performed any research concerning the disposal of the few hundred thousand tons of bad and ruptured batteries (via wrecks and overheating etc,) that will inevitably accrue over a relatively short period of time? Will they be refurbished and will the existing chems in the batteries be reusable or must another avenue for disposal be found?