Is Electrification Really Sustainable? A Deep Dive into the Environmental Impact of Electrification
Electrification is positioned as the savior of the climate and environmental crisis. But can we electrify at a global scale without consequences?
How we produce and utilize lithium-ion batteries today isn’t sustainable.
Electrification doesn’t equal sustainability if we don’t change how we do things.
Toxic chemicals leaked from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine in Tibet killed fish in the Liqi River and animals that drank the contaminated water. Researchers found that chemicals from a lithium processing operation in Nevada impact fish as far as 150 miles downstream. Meanwhile, it takes 500,000 gallons of water to extract one ton of lithium.
A recent Guardian article proclaims that “… by 2050, the US alone would need triple the amount of lithium currently produced for the entire global market, which would have dire consequences for water and food supplies, biodiversity, and indigenous rights.”
The rush to meet the world’s appetite for lithium-ion batteries has already created many environmental issues that will worsen as governments tighten industry regulations and emission standards.
The environmental impact of lithium-ion batteries isn’t limited to the mining and production processes. We must address issues throughout the lifecycle to prevent lithium batteries from becoming the next fossil fuel.
Lithium mining has high environmental costs
Like any mining process, lithium extraction is invasive. It scars the landscape, destroys the water table, and pollutes the air, land, and water. Additionally, most lithium mining occurs in dry, hot, and mountainous regions, further exacerbating the impact of water shortage on the local flora, fauna, and human populations.
Here are the top environmental impacts of lithium mining:
Pollute water sources: Lithium mining in South America salinize the freshwater locals rely on. The harmful minerals also contaminate water basins, poisoning the local ecosystem and causing many health problems.
Impact farming activities: Lithium mining consumes 65% of water in Chile’s Salar de Atacama region, affecting its ecosystem and the livelihood of local farmers.
Promote waterborne diseases: The mining process’s high water requirement can cause acute water shortage in arid areas and lead to the prevalence of waterborne diseases such as dysentery and cholera.
Increase carbon dioxide emissions: The lithium extraction process and heavy machinery (often run on fossil fuels) release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Remove local vegetation: Lithium miners cut down all the trees, which produces oxygen and removes carbon dioxide from the air. Plus, the plants act as a habitat for local fauna, and their removal often causes irreversible damage to the ecosystem.
Release toxic chemicals: Toxic substances (e.g., hydrochloric acid) leak from evaporation pools into the water supply, killing animals and causing health issues among humans.
Produce massive mining wastes: The separation of usable lithium from the core (called gangue) results in tailings, which contain sulfuric acid discharge, radioactive uranium byproducts, lime, magnesium wastes, etc.
Reduce water table: Lithium mining destroys the soil structure, leading to unsustainable water table reduction. It depletes water resources and exposes the ecosystem to irreversible damage and even extinction.
Disrupt the water cycle: Lithium extraction causes surface water contamination, destroys water sources, and leads to toxic rain. Vegetation removal also disrupts the natural water cycle and reduces rainfall in arid regions.
Cobalt and nickel mining adds insult to injury
Batteries consist of minerals besides lithium, including cobalt and nickel, that carry even more severe potential environmental and societal impacts.
Cobalt is concentrated in central Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and almost nowhere else. It’s produced mostly from artisanal mines where it’s extracted by hand, often by child labor with no access to protective equipment.
Wastes from these mines aren’t treated before disposal, polluting rivers and drinking water. The dust from the pulverized rock causes respiratory issues, while toxic chemicals result in miscarriages and deformities in infants.
Nickel mining also has a significant environmental impact on land and water resources. The process releases pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, cancer-causing dust, and heavy metals into the air. It can also lead to deforestation, habitat destruction, and erosion.
Processing nickel ore generates large amounts of harmful waste while using heavy machinery and the improper disposal of mining waste can contaminate water sources for human and wildlife populations.
For instance, the Arctic branch of Norilsk Nickel emitted 1,883,000 tonnes of air pollution in 2015, most of it sulfur dioxide, which harms the respiratory system and kills plants and trees.
Does redemption lie in “reuse, reduce, recycle”?
Yes, we can reduce the use of lithium and other resources through the good old “reuse, reduce, recycle” maxim. But until now, we don’t have the battery management technology to turn theory into reality.
I once tested a batch of used batteries switched out from retail scanners during routine maintenance. 95% of the cells still held more than 98% of their designed capacity. Why were they discarded instead of getting a second life in other less critical applications?
Most of today’s battery management systems can’t measure and collect telemetries and state of health (SoH) values to understand the characteristics and remaining life of used batteries. Without the data, it’s impossible to tell which cell is suitable for what application.
Moreover, you can’t mix old and new cells or ones with different chemistries in the same pack with today’s battery technology. Doing so results in uneven charging and discharging — the older batteries can overheat, potentially leading to leakage or damage to other cells in the pack.
Unfortunately, battery manufacturers are very secretive about their “recipes.” They don't disclose their cell chemistries, and cells from the same brand could have different makeups. The lack of information makes it almost impossible to identify cells that’d play nice with each other.
Overhauling battery management technology to make electrification sustainable
These challenges will become a thing of the past thanks to the Tanktwo software-defined battery operating system (TBOS). Allow us to toot our own horn for a few paragraphs:
We provide SoH metrics to support second-life applications.
SoH is a critical metric for supporting second-life usage, but most battery management systems don’t measure it because of its complexity. Our advanced algorithm calculates it continuously using various parameters such as capacity fade, cycle count, and variations in impedance to provide the data required to inform how a cell can be repurposed.
We make mixing and matching cells of different ages and chemistries kosher.
Our software allows operators to set parameters with a few clicks on the screen. Then, the algorithm activates the most suitable cells based on their chemistry, construction, age, and other characteristics to meet the requirements. The system also continuously monitors the cells’ SoH and put them through different charge/discharge cycles to balance the aging effect.
We make it possible to change one cell instead of tossing out the whole battery.
Since you can mix and match cells of different ages and chemistries, you can easily replace only the broken ones when you discover a weak link without discarding the entire battery pack. This capability dramatically reduces waste while lowering the demand for battery materials because you can make the most of the existing resources.
We reduce the weight of battery packs, so it takes less power to move them.
Our technology eliminates internal cabling within a battery pack — you get the same amount of power with a smaller, lighter unit with the same chemistry. Equipment will need fewer battery cells to perform the same amount of work, reducing the raw materials required to make batteries.
We reduce wastage caused by just-in-case maintenance.
Remember the 95% of cells that have 98% of design capacity left when they got tossed out? Our predictive analytics capabilities eliminate these just-in-case, wasteful maintenance activities and replace them with just-in-time ones without compromising reliability. Operators no longer have to throw the baby out with the bathwater just because they don’t know which cell will fail.
We future-proof equipment and battery systems.
Scientists are working hard to develop batteries that use accessible and environmentally-friendly materials to replace cobalt and lithium. Since our technology can use any battery chemistry, you don’t have to bat an eye when the switch happens.
Bottom line
We could be in for some very undesirable consequences down the road if we pursue electrification without considering the environmental and social impacts of the current battery and battery management technologies. While we can’t say that TBOS can solve everything, we can make every cell work harder so everyone can use resources more responsibly to support electrification on a global scale.
