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Electric Cars Vs. Polluting Batteries: A Challenge to Technology

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Recycling and reusing electric car batteries has become a major challenge to reduce environmental impact and improve the efficiency of the electrical grid. Large manufacturers such as General Motors and Nissan are collaborating with specialized companies to find cost-effective solutions and optimize the life cycle of these batteries. Find out how they are addressing this concern.

car batteries

The challenge of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and reducing CO2 emissions has forced us to integrate new technologies that have a direct environmental impact. However, using batteries as a power bank is a challenge that has not yet been overcome.

How to prevent electric batteries from polluting the environment and causing health problems? 

As automakers continue to struggle in the electric car race, some have wondered, where will batteries go once they have reached the end of their automotive life? Simply disposing of batteries in some kind of landfill will not help the environment and it certainly will not appeal to automakers or customers. To address this concern, several large automakers in the electric car race have partnered with companies with knowledge of electricity and energy to plan ways to recycle and reuse outdated electric car batteries and their energy.

General Motors has announced that it will collaborate with the Swiss company ABB, a leader in power and automation technologies and the world's largest provider of electrical grid systems, to design a plan to reuse the batteries in the Chevrolet Volt. The companies will develop several pilot projects and examine the Volt's 16 kWh lithium-ion batteries to see how second-life car batteries can be used to provide grid storage systems.

During the pilot projects, companies will study the storage of renewable energy, network load management, backup power supplies for communities, and time-of-use management. According to GM Electrical Systems Executive Director Micky Bly, "Volt's battery will have a significant capacity to store electrical energy, even after its automotive life." This means that after the eight-year or 100,000-mile warranty offered on the Volt, the battery will still have power that can be used for other purposes if the car battery is recycled. Therefore, GM's ultimate goal through its partnership with ABB is to find a cost-effective solution that optimizes the full life cycle of the battery and improves the efficiency of the country's electricity grid.

Another automaker that has started looking into the possibilities of recycling electric batteries is Nissan. Nissan has entered into a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation to conduct research on used lithium-ion batteries. The joint venture, called 4R Energy, aims to 'Reuse, Resell, Remanufacture and Recycle' the electric batteries that power the Nissan Leaf.

The company is expected to conduct demonstration tests and undertake a commercialization study as it works to develop a business for the use of second-life lithium-ion batteries. City, a national leader in solar design and installation, and the University of California, Berkley, to investigate the outdated possibilities of electric car batteries. The trio is developing a system that will combine Tesla's electric car battery system with SolarCity's monitoring platform to produce an advanced stationary, grid-interactive photovoltaic (PV) storage product that can be installed in buildings.

The idea is that the battery storage created will accumulate excess photovoltaic energy that the utility can use instead of using power plants with higher emissions. So as the electric car race progresses, it looks like General Motors, Nissan and Tesla Motors will also compete in the battery electric car race.

In the case of traditional internal combustion car batteries that contain lead; they contain a large amount of lead and acid, which also pollute the environment. However, lead can be mined and recycled to make other products; so it's up to you to be a bit more demanding in how you dispose of your traditional drum kit.

It is important if you do it in a workshop, that you make sure that they store it for later collection by a recycling company.

If you change your battery yourself, look online for recycling centers near your location. Seal it well, and secure it in your trunk to prevent it from falling and spilling acid, either on your vehicle, or from coming into contact with your skin or mucous membranes (it can cause serious irritations and you should wash immediately with plenty of water). Contact with lead, which is a heavy metal, can cause lead poisoning.

Do not throw the battery in the garbage can with your domestic garbage, it will become an environmental time bomb, by directly contaminating the environment, but will make the other materials in the garbage that could have been recycled unrecoverable. Separate your garbage, and keep the environment in mind!

 

Frequently asked questions from our readers:

The environmental impacts of electric car batteries include the extraction of materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, which can cause damage to ecosystems and depletion of natural resources. However, electric car batteries can be properly recycled to minimize these impacts. Recycling batteries allows valuable materials to be recovered and reduces the need to extract new resources. Additionally, proper recycling of batteries prevents the release of toxic substances into the environment. Read more here: https://www.equilibriumx.com/reciclate/autos-electricos-vs-baterias-contaminantes-un-reto-a-la-tecnologia
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Last modified: January 2, 2024