Teslas new Lithium Refinery

[nzoomed]

Lots of naysayers talk about lithium recycling, environmental damage etc, this video goes into a bit of detail of their new refinery which will be able to refine recycled lithium, there will be a growing industry for lithium recycling over the next few years im expecting.

[harm_less]

Lots of naysayers talk about lithium recycling, environmental damage etc, this video goes into a bit of detail of their new refinery which will be able to refine recycled lithium, there will be a growing industry for lithium recycling over the next few years im expecting.

A couple of points worth noting are that lithium refining that as stated literally includes "rinse and repeat" which is very demanding of water, and the refinery is sited in a desert location. Also moves are already underway to production of sodium based batteries. Not as energy dense as lithium equivalents but fine for applications where size and weight isn't so much a consideration such as static storage batteries. I guess Tesla has done their homework in both respects.

[king1]

can't wait to see that go boom...

[harm_less]

can't wait to see that go boom...

If you're referring to the much voiced criticism of Li-Ion battery fires you're way off the mark. LiOH is alkaline and hygroscopic but no more flammable than table salt. The flammability aspect of Li-Ion batteries is more due to the electrolytes within those batteries which is being countered by LiFePO4 battery formulation or solid state technology.

If fires are your thing you'd be better off watching fossil fuel refineries, or hybrid vehicles.

[king1]

can't wait to see that go boom...

If you're referring to the much voiced criticism of Li-Ion battery fires you're way off the mark. LiOH is alkaline and hygroscopic but no more flammable than table salt. The flammability aspect of Li-Ion batteries is more due to the electrolytes within those batteries which is being countered by LiFePO4 battery formulation or solid state technology.

If fires are your thing you'd be better off watching fossil fuel refineries, or hybrid vehicles.

So no boom boom, thanks for clearing that up...

[king1]

Just in case anyone is interested in a boom boom...

[nzoomed]

Lots of naysayers talk about lithium recycling, environmental damage etc, this video goes into a bit of detail of their new refinery which will be able to refine recycled lithium, there will be a growing industry for lithium recycling over the next few years im expecting.

A couple of points worth noting are that lithium refining that as stated literally includes "rinse and repeat" which is very demanding of water, and the refinery is sited in a desert location. Also moves are already underway to production of sodium based batteries. Not as energy dense as lithium equivalents but fine for applications where size and weight isn't so much a consideration such as static storage batteries. I guess Tesla has done their homework in both respects.

Yeah i bet alot of water is required in the process, hopefully they have systems that recycle the water in the process, i would expect this is the case, no doubt they have the plant running on solar like their gigafactory in Texas too. Im guessing in another 10+ years or so that there will be a bit more of an influx of lithium batteries for disposal that will make their way back into the supply chain and that recycling plants will grow to fill the market.
I remember a while back that another company started by an ex-tesla employee has built a recycling plant so there is an emerging market to recover the lithium, currently I dont know anyone in NZ who takes lithium batteries, the e-waste company i take dead electronics to says that they dont have anyone in NZ who takes the batteries yet so sadly they go to landfill.
Sodium ion looks quite promising and could be a good incentive for more water desalination plants to be built, particularly in oil rich nations such as Saudi Arabia where they will be needing to diversify their economy out of oil.
I think it will be a way off for practical use in EV's anytime soon, but will be great for home solar energy storage, I think they still dont quite have as good a cycle life as lithium, but each generation is improving.

can't wait to see that go boom...

If you're referring to the much voiced criticism of Li-Ion battery fires you're way off the mark. LiOH is alkaline and hygroscopic but no more flammable than table salt. The flammability aspect of Li-Ion batteries is more due to the electrolytes within those batteries which is being countered by LiFePO4 battery formulation or solid state technology.
If fires are your thing you'd be better off watching fossil fuel refineries, or hybrid vehicles.

LiFePO4 chemistry is also virtually 100% safe from fire and explosion as far as im aware, compared to colbalt based chemistries such as NMC, the industry is moving away from this due to the human rights issues involved in mining the stuff, but I dont see it moving away from our mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets any time soon unfortunately.
Its also worth noting that most fires started by lithium batteries are from such devices, along with e-bikes and hoverboards etc that rely on high energy density chemistry.
Tesla still use it in some of their vehicles, but I believe newer models such as the cyber truck and all models using the 4680 cells are all LiFePO4 as far as im aware.

[harm_less]

A couple of points worth noting are that lithium refining that as stated literally includes "rinse and repeat" which is very demanding of water, and the refinery is sited in a desert location. Also moves are already underway to production of sodium based batteries. Not as energy dense as lithium equivalents but fine for applications where size and weight isn't so much a consideration such as static storage batteries. I guess Tesla has done their homework in both respects.

Yeah i bet alot of water is required in the process, hopefully they have systems that recycle the water in the process, i would expect this is the case, no doubt they have the plant running on solar like their gigafactory in Texas too. Im guessing in another 10+ years or so that there will be a bit more of an influx of lithium batteries for disposal that will make their way back into the supply chain and that recycling plants will grow to fill the market.
I remember a while back that another company started by an ex-tesla employee has built a recycling plant so there is an emerging market to recover the lithium, currently I dont know anyone in NZ who takes lithium batteries, the e-waste company i take dead electronics to says that they dont have anyone in NZ who takes the batteries yet so sadly they go to landfill.
Sodium ion looks quite promising and could be a good incentive for more water desalination plants to be built, particularly in oil rich nations such as Saudi Arabia where they will be needing to diversify their economy out of oil.
I think it will be a way off for practical use in EV's anytime soon, but will be great for home solar energy storage, I think they still dont quite have as good a cycle life as lithium, but each generation is improving.

You might want to acquaint your e-waste company with UpcycleNZ, and be aware that EV batteries are able to be upcycled multiple times before they need to be recycled. The biggest single barrier to EV battery recycling schemes including Redwood Materials who is the ex Tesla guy you mention is a shortage of feedstock due to EV batteries not reaching end of life in sufficient quantities.

The landfill scenario you mention is far more likely to occur for small appliance batteries such as in laptops, phones and the like. I've tried to pass this responsibility onto our local council in the past by leaving the batteries I asked them about on their public counter but I suspect that these just got transferred into their garbage, though hopefully a laptop battery that recently died on me and was 'taken care of' by the repairer ended up in a recycling scheme of some description.

[nzoomed]

Yeah i bet alot of water is required in the process, hopefully they have systems that recycle the water in the process, i would expect this is the case, no doubt they have the plant running on solar like their gigafactory in Texas too. Im guessing in another 10+ years or so that there will be a bit more of an influx of lithium batteries for disposal that will make their way back into the supply chain and that recycling plants will grow to fill the market.
I remember a while back that another company started by an ex-tesla employee has built a recycling plant so there is an emerging market to recover the lithium, currently I dont know anyone in NZ who takes lithium batteries, the e-waste company i take dead electronics to says that they dont have anyone in NZ who takes the batteries yet so sadly they go to landfill.
Sodium ion looks quite promising and could be a good incentive for more water desalination plants to be built, particularly in oil rich nations such as Saudi Arabia where they will be needing to diversify their economy out of oil.
I think it will be a way off for practical use in EV's anytime soon, but will be great for home solar energy storage, I think they still dont quite have as good a cycle life as lithium, but each generation is improving.

You might want to acquaint your e-waste company with UpcycleNZ, and be aware that EV batteries are able to be upcycled multiple times before they need to be recycled. The biggest single barrier to EV battery recycling schemes including Redwood Materials who is the ex Tesla guy you mention is a shortage of feedstock due to EV batteries not reaching end of life in sufficient quantities.

The landfill scenario you mention is far more likely to occur for small appliance batteries such as in laptops, phones and the like. I've tried to pass this responsibility onto our local council in the past by leaving the batteries I asked them about on their public counter but I suspect that these just got transferred into their garbage, though hopefully a laptop battery that recently died on me and was 'taken care of' by the repairer ended up in a recycling scheme of some description.

Thats good to see that there is a company here that has the ability to recycle them, and they are right that the main issue is no EV battery packs have reached them because there are so few out there that are at the point of needing recycling, that will change in about another 10 years.
Yes the big issue is with many battery packs from power tools, laptops, phones etc that are going straight to the landfill, I should see if this crowd knows much about upcycle, it appears they have only been operating for a fairly short time and looks like they currently are exporting the batteries overseas for recycling at this stage, i guess this will change once volumes increase enough to make it viable.

These batteries do make great reuse for solar storage, I know someone who has a salvaged tesla battery running his whole home off solar.