EVs are gaining steam. Here's what will.happen to all those dead batteries

[SheltieLover]

https://jalopnik.com/evs-are-gaining-steam-heres-what-will-happen-to-all-th-1846172272/amp

Volkswagen announced a pilot program for EV battery recycling in Salzgitter, Germany, and it’s about time one of the biggest carmakers started addressing the inevitable EV question: What about the batteries?

Concern over battery recycling has loomed for a long time, but now that EVs are in volume production it’s even more important for the industry to address it. The announcement from VW is just one of the latest among a number of these that have popped up in the past few years.

While Volkswagen is neither early nor late, we should note that Nissan had begun to consider what its Leaf EV would mean for waste production as far back as 2010. Back then, Nissan partnered with Sumitomo Corporation and got to work developing a solution.

Their joint venture, now known as 4R Energy Corporation, opened a plant in 2018 that would take spent EV batteries and put them into power grids to store excess energy harvested from renewable energy sources — typically generating intermittently — like wind and solar.

More at link.

[progree]

1. The article goes on to say what happens when the battery's 2nd life is exhausted:

for example,

Like Volkswagen, many recyclers now claim that the recovery rate for EV battery materials exceeds 95 percent. And that number has been steadily climbing as the technology matured.

[NNadir]

3. It all sounds cute, as marketing, but one should really look into the process.

Tons, and tons, and tons, and tons of scientific literature exists on the topic of recycling lithium batteries.

It isn't pretty.

This entire article is marketing by the same company that put defeat devices on its Jetta/Audi A3 "green" diesel engines so that they ran clean when being tested and filthy in normal operations.

[Miguelito Loveless]

4. Please note poster in pro-nuclear

And constantly writing anti-EV, anti-solar/wind posts.

[progree]

5. They had a lot of company. A sad world we live in.

This entire article is marketing by the same company that put defeat devices on its Jetta/Audi A3 "green" diesel engines so that they ran clean when being tested and filthy in normal operations.

A lot of other automakers' similar efforts are mentioned in the article. But then most of them are cheaters too.

Nissan Admits To Falsifying Emissions Tests, Peter Lyon, Contributor, Forbes, 7/9/18
(Opinions expressed by Forbes contributors are their own)

Today in Tokyo, Nissan joined the increasing list of automakers who have admitted to falsifying emissions and/or fuel economy figures. The company said it had uncovered falsified data from car exhaust emissions tests at most of its plants based in Japan.

... [a brief mini-history of emissions or mileage cheating]

After VW became embroiled in a worldwide emissions cheating scandal in 2015, the following year Opel’s Zafira minivans and Insignia sedans were found to have software on diesel variants that turn off emissions controls during real-world driving.

Also in 2016, the U.S. also became entangled in the growing scandal when it was discovered that several models including the Chevy Traverse falsely identified mileage readings some two MPG over the EPA's official figures. In the same year, Japan’s transport ministry ordered widespread checks to industry methods after Suzuki and Mitsubishi admitted to manipulating fuel economy data for several of their respective mini-vehicle models, overstating their efficiency.

Then, just last month, the German Transport Ministry ordered Daimler to recall over 770,000 vehicles in Europe because of what it called “inadmissible” software that adversely affected equipment designed to control diesel emissions.

... For the time being, Mazda appears to be one of the few companies to have avoided the diesel emissions scandal with their Skyactiv technology. Independent investigations in Europe have found that virtually every diesel-powered vehicle pumps out far more NOX and CO2 in real-world driving than during testing procedures.

More: https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2018/07/09/nissan-admits-to-falsifying-emissions-tests/?sh=50c3eb28376c

[NNadir]

6. And yet, powered by dimethyl ether, the diesel engine is potentially the cleanest IC engine there is

There still is a NOx problem that can be addressed catalytically, and a tiny amount of Boudouard type soot - albeit less, since DME lacks a carbon carbon bond. The Boudouard problem might also be minimized catalytically.

Even without catalysts, the problem would be, however, many orders of magnitude cleaner.

It's too bad that the Germans thought that trashing the SE Asian rain forests for "renewable" biodiesel was a good idea. They had one of the first true high temperature nuclear reactors, an analogue (HTGR-10) with which the Chinese are experimenting for thermochemical water splitting.

[Finishline42]

7. Mercedes Blue-Tec works

I know it works, don't know how well it works, but it's the same technology that the big over-the-road trucks use.

They use DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) and a particulate filter.

The 'DEF' fluid is comprised of 32.5% urea and de-ionized water, and is injected into the exhaust. It coverts the NOx compounds into nitrogen and water (the ammonia in the urea is what reacts).

Two characteristics of the old type diesels are absent from Blue-Tec - the smell and the soot. You could always tell an old diesel by soot that would collect by the exhaust - on the bumper typically and of course the smell.

[progree]

10. That's good. My knowledge of automobile engines:

internal combustion engines that burn gasoline have spark plugs. The spark plug ignites the fuel, kaboom, down goes the piston.

Diesel: doesn't have a spark plug.

And that's about all I know (and probably out-of-date).

[Finishline42]

11. Gas engines are very picky

On the quality of fuel, compression and fuel to air ratios. Get that out of kilter and you can get 'knock' which is pre-detonation. It literally eats away the inside of the combustion chamber. And all have had a tank full of 'bad' gas, car would run like crap.

Diesels not so much. Heat and compression. They will burn a lot different types of oils.

There was a big push about 10-15 years ago burning used cooking oil. Just go to the local fast food place and they would gladly give it away. Had to install a second tank and other stuff to make it work, but it would work. Then companies started up paying restaurants for their used cooking oil and that put an end to that.

[AZ8theist]

2. Volkswagen will just flip a switch in software....

and then: "What car battery"????

[mac2766]

8. EVs are here. They're not going anywhere.

I applaud the effort to find a way to recycle batteries.

[Finishline42]

9. Exactly

Who is going to take care of the millions of abandoned gas and oil wells? There's no recycling of those environmental hazards.

Abandoned coal mines - same issue. Companies go broke and there's nothing left to reclaim the mine site.