Batteries Have An Evil Side We are constantly being pushed toward electric cars. We are told how much they save the environment and yet, they have a dirty secret no one talks about. They use batteries, lots of batteries and these batteries have to somehow be disposed of at some time. There are a lot of problems with batteries which should concern us from the obtaining of the minerals to make them, their manufacture and their eventual disposal. The people who mine the materials such as manganese are often found to be children. It affects the health of these people and Lithium mining is even more dangerous to people. Batteries eventually corrode and the chemicals get into groundwater and the soil. Because we use huge amounts of batteries and would use many times more if we all had electric cars, which by the way contain thousands of battery cells in a pack, they could really be dangerous. We all know from seeing toxic waste dumps, that some of these batteries will land up in land fills and such, and no matter how careful we are and what new disposal laws are passed. Even the process of manufacturing these batteries has problems for the environment. Lithium Ion batteries age and wear out even when they are not used. The manufacturing process is also problematic. It has been said producing one battery of a range of 40 kWh and 100 kWh emits 2920 kg and 7300 kg of CO2 respectively. I can’t help but think these batteries are really not the answer to solving any global contamination problems, let alone global warming, if we are causing it. Almost every technology has some positives and negatives, but this battery technology could create even a worse problem for us in years to come unless we can figure out how to mine, build, use and dispose of batteries in a much safer way. I have to wonder how many phones and their batteries are now in dumps all over the world. Most of us replace our smart phones in under 3 years. Sometimes it is because we break them in different ways, or just want a newer model. We have to remember our cell phones are not just phones and some people replace them to get a better camera or because there is some sort of technical problem with them. I had intended to keep my phone much longer than I did, but because 3G was being closed down, I had to get a new phone which could handle 5G. Before that, the screen on the smart phone I had cracked. One problem which seems to not be as prevalent with these batteries is fires. When the Lithium Ion batteries first came out, there were quite a few fires. I remember one which made the news because it was on a device in a commercial airline flight. These problems were solved by inserting new circuits in the batteries to prevent this from happening. I also remember many laptop fires where the batteries burst into flames. Here is something I saw about batteries. It seems scientists think the most efficient batteries we have are the ones in our watches. They claim they have figured out how to add electrolytes to them to make them even more powerful. If they could be scaled up, they might make a viable replacement for the Lithium Ion batteries. When we hear about work on a nuclear battery, it probably scares the heck out of us. The Russians have not only invented a nuclear battery, but claim they can scale it up to any size. They claim it is safe. One scientist said, “What the world doesn’t need right now are more remotely located radioactive sources that could be stolen by terrorists and used in dirty-bombs.” Even if the battery is safe, there is no way we should be making nuclear material so accessible. What is needed is a battery made from simple materials, which are not harmful to our health or the environment, and is inexpensive and powerful. Maybe I am asking too much, but I hope not. Its funny, but over the years I have read so much about breakthroughs in battery technology and yet none of those batteries have borne fruit. One idea which scientists were very sure of at the time was a plastic wafer battery. The idea was the more wafers you added to the battery the more powerful and longer lasting it got. The way it was talked about it seemed it was going to only be a short time before it came onto the market, but it never showed up. This story has been repeated many times by battery researchers. One of the things which just might improve battery technology will be mining asteroids and alien planets. We might just find a new material which will improve our batteries. Right now, we need batteries even if we use solar power as a storage medium, but if we could figure out some other way to store solar energy it would be helpful. It would be especially helpful if we could do this for cars too. I don’t hear much about this anymore, but at one time solar energy was stored by using it to heat water in a home and the pipes were covered in a material to keep the heat in. I believe this was only useful for heating the home at night, not for supplying electrical current such as a battery does. Scientists are still talking about beaming energy to cars and possibly homes. What I don’t like about this idea is twofold. First of all, we don’t know what effect all that electricity in the air will have on us, no matter how many times we are told it is harmless. The other thing I do not like is when it comes to homes, I have always believed the home should have its own power source and not be subject to a grid or central power source which could be knocked out easily. As far as cars go, I would love to know more about the car Nikola Tesla was working on which ran on cosmic rays. Was the info buried because the oil companies wouldn’t want us not to need gasoline at the time? They did have a history of buying out advanced battery technology to prevent a rush to electric cars. That all seems to have changed now. Batteries have been around for at least 1,000 years and we can only hope someday we will get the technology right.
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