THEREALCABEZAGRANDE t1_j6jug77 wrote
Reply to comment by Surur in Study: Enough minerals to fuel green energy shift -"The analysis is robust and this study debunks those (running out of minerals) concerns" by Surur
Because lithium is necessary for many basic biological processes in most sea flora and fauna, and the mass redistribution of it in seawater will have large and unknown effects. And known reserves that are suitable for use in high quality batteries have not even close to doubled. Some high quality lithium currently being used for other applications such as lubricants could be shifted to the large reserves of crap lithium we've found, but it isn't nearly enough. And you know how lithium is primarily mined right? Strip leech mining, which has a huge negative environmental impact. All in service of a battery technology that's an order of magnitude less efficient than it needs to be to actually supplant internal combustion in most use cases.
Surur OP t1_j6jyslz wrote
> Because lithium is necessary for many basic biological processes in most sea flora and fauna, and the mass redistribution of it in seawater will have large and unknown effects.
This sounds like hocus-pocus. Lets be serious lol.
> And known reserves that are suitable for use in high quality batteries have not even close to doubled. Some high quality lithium currently being used for other applications such as lubricants could be shifted to the large reserves of crap lithium we've found, but it isn't nearly enough.
After its mined and purified, lithium is lithium. There is no such thing as "high-quality lithium" It's not the drugs you are currently smoking.
> And you know how lithium is primarily mined right? Strip leech mining, which has a huge negative environmental impact.
This is not even close to true. The majority of lithium is from South America, where evaporative separation is used.
> All in service of a battery technology that's an order of magnitude less efficient than it needs to be to actually supplant internal combustion in most use cases.
The biggest WTF from a long list. EVs are at least twice as efficient as gas cars.
Prophayne_ t1_j6kcnl5 wrote
This isn't my argument I am just gonna back him up a little on the two things you seem inconvinced of for sure.
There is more I'm worried about than fish dependency on lithium as current studies (though there are few) show that most sea life, biologically anyway, have a little too much in them currently, mostly around the brain, but too little in the muscles. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32882547/
The real issue (that we currently know of for sure) with solving lithium from the ocean is noise pollution, which sea life is extremely, extremely sensitive to. I'm not going to provide a source for that, watch fish die at your own leisure. I don't vibe with it. (You've honestly probably already seen a few videos on here anyway)
Now mining and quality of the metal. That one you are the big wrong on. Melting it down doesn't make it "pure", and without what would be an expensive and dirty process to chemically drop the lithium out to claim it on its own (like you mentioned with the layer added on to desalination) you'd get a loss in quality for each step you shortcut for cost savings and efficiency. There is absolutely a standard of quality we use for every metal for every job. We will not use steel borne from pig iron to construct a skyscraper for instance (atleast you really really shouldnt), and lithium is a spicy metal, a lot more can go wrong with that if you don't do it the right degree within x% of contaminates.
You both are right. Lithium is by no means exceptionally rare, but it's going to take a lot of money, care, consideration, and time to do correctly. Most people riding the electric trend hard refuse for time to be allowed, most people against the ev trend would refuse to give it money, care, and consideration.
Again, no sides taken, I just like to hit hot steel with a hammer and make things and have dropped lithium out of a few different solutions via electrolysis.
WinterTires t1_j6mcety wrote
Time mismatch is killer. +10 years to build a mine, ironically because of environmental regulations.
[deleted] t1_j6m36iq wrote
[removed]
Surur OP t1_j6m3avn wrote
Look, you are obviously an uninformed dinosaur lol.
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