Batteries in Our Future…
Stocking Stuffers
When I was a single mom, raising my kids, I used to love to put fun things in their stockings. Candy, candy dispensers, small toys, gag gifts, etc, and I would always include a bundle of batteries. Back then, there were so many things that could use AAs that it made functional sense. I would imagine that is still somewhat the same today. My daughter, even as an adult, still enjoys filling the stockings for loved ones, and she will include batteries. Nostalgia is such a fun part of the holidays.
Technological Mismatch…
But for all the fun that batteries can provide, there is a small amount of irony in our technological society that has smart phones, smart homes and smart cars. With all the technological advances that we have had made in the last few decades, using the simple comparison of computers that would fill a room to computers that fit into the palm of your hand… Or smaller! The advances in storing energy have changed very little from their historical beginnings and may prove to be our “Achilles heel” in some of the more innovative green power advancements down the road.
History of Batteries
To begin with, battery “construction” has not changed much. “A battery is essentially a device that stores chemical energy that is converted into electricity. Basically, batteries are small chemical reactors, with the reaction producing energetic electrons, ready to flow through the external device.” Depending on who you read, the history of batteries varies a little as to who lead the way on the actual creation of a battery… The ancient Baghdad Battery from approximately 2500 years ago, the Leyden Jar of 1744, or the Voltaic Pile in 1800 which was the first “wet cell” battery. Regardless of who made the first “official” battery, Benjamin Franklin is given the credit for naming them “batteries” in 1749.
Interesting Anachronisms
For all our advancements in technology, it is interesting to note that modern day combustion engines are still being started with the basic rechargeable battery that was created back in 1859. I could carry this use of anachronisms further by mentioning that our electrical power system is basically unchanged from the early 1880’s. I love their creative use of space in their logo! Yep. We are still using a system that is about 140 years old for our homes and cars. Strange to think that my grandmother, who was born in the1890’s, would have seen the advent of “modern electricity” and it’s expansion across the nation… And yet for all of our technological advancements? We’re still working with an archaic power system based off the 1880’s. We’ve put men on the moon and satellites into deep space, yet our electricity is still being delivered on systems that are old, so old that if not maintained there can be dire consequences. California wildfires come to mind. While this line of thought is both entertaining and disconcerting, I will keep my focus on batteries and their potential limitations.
Battery Construction
Batteries have needed the same basic materials since their inception: two different metals, to make electrodes, within an electrolyte. The materials used have varied over time, but the basics are still the same. The lead-acid battery of your car is literally lead, lead oxide, sulfuric acid, powdered sulfate and water. A dry cell battery, like your AAs and AAAs, are made of zinc, carbon, a cardboard divide and a jelly paste of aluminum chloride or manganese dioxide. The common dry cell battery is referred to as a Primary or single use battery because you can only get one use out of them. “This is because the battery actually destroys itself over a discharge—either depleting electrodes as they discharge, or building up reaction products on the electrodes preventing the reaction from continuing. Once this happens, the battery ends up in the bin.”
With the advent of cell phones in the early 1980’s, batteries needed to be able to last longer and to recharge for ease of use and reliability. To recharge a battery, all that is needed is the appropriate choice of electrode materials, thereby allowing the reversal of the chemical reaction that occurs during discharge. Common electrode materials used in rechargeable batteries are Nickel, Lithium, Silver, and Zinc.
How Many Batteries?!?
With all this talk of batteries, exactly how many do we buy here in America, in one year? It was not surprising to find out, based off the number of battery displays throughout local stores… that we Americans buy over 3 billion dry cell batteries alone each year. Gracious! Where are we getting the materials to make all these batteries?
Where Do Battery Parts Come From?
Batteries are made from metals, as well as other materials, due to the fact that metals can conduct electricity. To obtain the needed metals for any battery, the metals must be extracted from their source… The earth’s crust. “The metal we use to make buildings, computers, cars and trucks, and many other products (like batteries) come from underground deposits of mineral ores containing high metal concentrations. The first step in metal alloy manufacturing is extracting the raw ore from the ground.”
Mining
But the mining process to extract these needed metals, or any metal that we use on a daily basis, is a large scale, wasteful process that has environmental repercussions. A catch-22 for our technologically dependent society. For a better understanding of mining practices and potential repercussions, here are a few of the different techniques used to mine metals.
Surface Mining Techniques: Surface mining is a method of mining that involves removing the soil and the overlying rock on top of the mineral deposit.
Strip Mining for surface ore, commonly used for coal and lignite.
Open Pit mining, creating a large pit or burrow.
Mountain Top Removal, for coal seams under mountains.
Dredging, suctioning up material from the bottom of oceans, lakes and rivers.
Panning for gold is the small scale version of this method.
Underground Mining Techniques: used when the ore is too deep for surface techniques or the profit (ore quality) outweighs the mining expense.
Room and Pillar, tunnels are created during the mining, with huge pillars left for support. Commonly used with coal mining.
Narrow Vein Stopping, minerals are excavated following the distinct crystalline veins through the crust, primarily used for mining platinum.
Block Caving, the underground version of Open Pit, where the ore body is undermined and progressively allowed to collapse under it’s own weight.
In-situ Mining Technique, also known as In-situ Leaching or Recovery, uses solvents that run through bore holes to dissolve the desired minerals in the ground, which are then pumped back out to the surface. Most commonly used for uranium and copper.
What Does All That Mining Give Us?
All of this effort to excavate and purify metals. All of this destruction to the surface or underground that requires clean up efforts and repair. But to what end…? What is the actual amount of desired metal to be had after all the mining and processing has been completed? This is a fair question, and might prove to be a little enlightening.
Before we get to this question, though, let’s have a quick reminder of the top 10 elements found in the Earth’s crust in order of predominance: (% are rounded up/down)
46% Oxygen – 28% Silicon – 8% Aluminum – 6% Iron – 4% Calcium – 2% Sodium – 2% Magnesium – 2% Potassium – 0.5% Titanium – 0.1% Hydrogen
From this simple list, one might note a rather obvious flaw… The common “battery metals” are not even in the top ten list. So how much excavating must occur to get these needed metals?
A Mining Term
Mathematically, the specific term I am trying to describe is called the Rock-to-Metal Ratio, or RMR. “The “rock-to-metal ratio” indicates how much ore and waste rock must be mined, moved and processed to produce a refined unit of a mineral commodity… For example, iron ore – one of the most heavily mined commodities – has a rock-to-metal ratio of 9-to-1. This means for every nine metric tons of waste rock and ore moved and processed, one metric ton of iron is produced… Gold, on the other hand, was found to have the highest ratio at about 3,000,000-to-1, which means for every three metric tons of ore and waste rock moved and processed, only one gram of gold is produced.” Quite the difference in the amount of mined material versus the refined metal end product.
Specific Metal Examples
If we were to speculate on the needed amounts of mined materials to obtain our battery metals, using iron ore as a reference, we “might” come up with some BIG numbers. If iron is the fourth most common element in the earth’s crust, then how many metric tons are being excavated to get some of the less abundant metals for our batteries? Let’s look at the basic metals I have already referred to previously, using the term Parts Per Million (ppm) by mass, mg/kg. Using a simplified list from the World Atlas, which got their list from the 97th Edition of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and yes, I did “look” through that online edition… The list is on page 14-17, so let’s compare some data.
If Iron (Fe) is 56,300 ppm in the earth’s crust, and you can get 1 metric ton of ore from 9 metric tons of waste… then how much waste would you need to go through to get 1 metric ton of:
Nickel (Ni) at 84 ppm
Zinc (Zn) at 70 ppm
Lithium (Li) at 20 ppm
Lead (Pb) at 14 ppm
Silver (Ag) at 0.075 ppm
Playing with the numbers…
If iron is 2,815 x’s MORE abundant than lithium (dividing 56300 by 20), then simply put, you would have to mine about 23,335 metric tons of waste rock for 1 ton of Lithium. That’s quite a bit of rock to move.
Metal Limitations
I doubt my math is “accurate” in mining terms, but this is not an article about math, it’s about batteries, and I am simply trying to point out a rather obvious flaw in the system… Metals have a limited availability. Like anything else here on earth that is NOT renewable, there is a finite amount of metals available to us for use. Plus, this bit of information neatly explains the market value of metals like Gold (at 0.004 ppm) and Silver. Just a little interesting tidbit.
So many things to think about…
A Battery Recap
At this point, let’s recap before I close this article, leaving some discussion room for the next article.
I began this article by writing about the rather archaic nature of batteries, specifically dealing with their history and construction. I then acknowledged that while our technology has grown at leaps and bounds, our batteries have limped along with little radical advancement.
I then discussed the mining process to obtain the needed metals for our batteries, and noted the rather sad ore output to the amount of rock extraction that must occur. With this finite amount of available metals in the earth’s crust, how long will our supplies last at out rate of consumption?
I hinted at the environmental repercussions of mining for metals. I’ll save that for part two as it ties into the Green Energy movement nicely.
Batteries and Our Green Future
I made a statement at the beginning of this article, and I will repeat it here at the end. If batteries are so restrictive in terms of keeping pace with our technology, having “limited” availability of needed metals in the earth’s crust and the soon-to-be-discussed pollution-from-production-factor, will batteries prove to be our “Achilles Heel” as we try to move towards more Green Solutions to our global condition…?
A Greener Focus and Seasonal Blessings
In part two I will focus more on the greener aspects of batteries and their potential limitations, both pros and cons. For now, enjoy your stockings, family and friends and any seasonal parties.
I wish you all the Blessings of the Season!
