Lithium is nearly twice as abundant as lead in the earth’s crust. I don’t hear anyone saying we’re running out of lead.
Recycling is also not clear cut for many of the metals and minerals needed. It’s a big gap to meet and few want to mine.
I wonder what would be the unintended consequences of exposing the environment with higher concentration of lithium. (the thicker layer)
The intake from the environment would be micrograms/day, if not even less, above natural background. There are water sources with far higher natural concentrations.
Lithium presence in drinking water (from natural sources) has been linked to lower crimes rate, suicides rate, and is acting as a mood stabilizer.
But this is why anyone taking it has to have their lithium levels checked from time to time.
In more recent times, analysis of the water confirmed it was laced with lithium.
Don't know much about materials science but is demand for lead expected to equal demand for lithium?
This I never knew!
Is there really only 3Kgs of lithium in a Tesla battery pack?
I didn't think so - the full lead-acid battery itself weighs less than 10kg, and it appeared to me that about half of that weight was the solution (water).
Even if true, though, still very surprised that a ~550kg EV battery has less than 10kg of lithium.
> a single EV has roughly 10 kilograms—or 22 pounds—of lithium in it
https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/Publications/Download/1391?op...
> The average battery contains between 16 to 21 pounds of lead
FWIW this might be particularly useful:
https://www.quora.com/Does-Teslas-70-kWh-battery-have-63-kg-...
> The original 70kWh Model S battery had 63kg of Lithium Carbonate Li2CO3. Often this was stated as the amount of lithium, which isn’t correct. Especially when people tried to compare it to the amount of known lithium available. While it’s typically sold as Lithium Carbonate, that’s not equivalent to the amount of Lithium available.
> There’s about 12kg of Lithium in 63kg of Lithium Carbonate, so that original 70kWh Model S battery had 12kg of Lithium. I don’t know how much it has today, but they’ve been improving the chemistry to use less materials like Cobalt and Lithium.