Timeline for Is Lithium mining any better for the environment than fossil fuel extraction?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
20 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 9 at 11:06 | comment | added | Don Joe | @user2451 As with all traditional technologies we used to consume guilt-free, evaluating - much less comparing properly - the "full impact" over the whole lifecycle of a given device is near-impossible because the current political-economic thinking has only bothered to put into numbers some impacts and not others. How do you compare numerically the impact of different resource extraction processes in terms of damage to drinking water sources, wildlife displacement or extinction, deforestation and ensuing local climate perturbation etc.? | |
| May 9 at 3:25 | answer | added | Jeff | timeline score: -2 | |
| Mar 3, 2020 at 17:48 | history | edited | Nic |
add tag: metal
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| Feb 21, 2020 at 6:52 | answer | added | Media | timeline score: 7 | |
| Feb 16, 2020 at 10:43 | comment | added | user2451 | This is cherry-picking. If you properly represented what he said, he is comparing the production of a specific item with a very vague term 'extraction of oil.' A valid question would be comparing the lifetime (production and use) impact of an electric car versus one on gas - and those comparisons come out in favor of the electric vehicles, including the (indeed) negative effects of producing lithium batteries. How much in favor depends on the way the electricity is produced. | |
| Feb 16, 2020 at 9:54 | vote | accept | Robotnik♦ | ||
| Feb 16, 2020 at 9:49 | answer | added | juhist | timeline score: 8 | |
| Feb 13, 2020 at 14:16 | comment | added | 410 gone | But then it's a nonsensical comparison. | |
| Feb 12, 2020 at 21:21 | comment | added | Robotnik♦ | @EnergyNumbers & SSpring - I'm mostly trying to compare the extraction/refining processes, thus leaving the use out of the equation for now. | |
| Feb 12, 2020 at 15:40 | comment | added | S Spring | Oil-sands involves un-advantageous oil extraction and refining. Sour crude requires more refining than sweet crude but reserves of sour crude are available to just pump out of the ground. But I also wouldn't suggest a comparison of the problems of lithium mining to the use of oil. | |
| Feb 12, 2020 at 9:15 | comment | added | 410 gone | It's not the extraction and processing of fossil fuels that's the big problem, so this seems like a nonsensical comparison. It's the burning of fossil fuels that's the big problem. | |
| Feb 11, 2020 at 3:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackSustain/status/1227064933080281089 | ||
| Feb 11, 2020 at 1:59 | comment | added | S Spring | There's one type of battery development for replacing lithium and several types of battery development for a safer use of lithium. Some of those safer uses of lithium use less lithium because of honeycomb designs and others because of alloying to solids. Well, reduce vehicle weight for less use of lithium. For instance the BMW i3 has a carbon-fiber bodywork to reduce weight. And the original Tesla roadster had an SMC bodywork. | |
| Feb 11, 2020 at 0:57 | comment | added | Robotnik♦ | @SSpring I'm primarily concerned with production-scale issues with Li, as that is what is being used by EV manufacturers today. Until the new battery options hit production-readiness (and face similar problems regarding the extraction of materials used to make them!) it's a bit of a moot point. | |
| Feb 11, 2020 at 0:25 | comment | added | S Spring | Lithium is going to be replaced in future developments of batteries because a damaged lithium-ion battery is prone to repeated fires. | |
| Feb 10, 2020 at 22:23 | comment | added | Robotnik♦ | @blacksmith37 I'm looking for a comparison of emissions at every stage of the extraction and refining of both Li and Oil. Does Lithium mining and processing have a higher carbon impact than the extraction and processing of fossil fuels? | |
| Feb 10, 2020 at 15:17 | comment | added | blacksmith37 | What does "better" mean ? Your friend is correct; Li is open pit surface mined. gas/oil wells are very limited ( a well head sticking out of the ground) after the drill rig is finished and moved. | |
| Feb 10, 2020 at 15:13 | comment | added | aucuparia | One big factor is that the oil is (nearly all) subsequently burned contributing to climate change. But whether the whole EV supply chain can realistically scale to replace internal combustion engines - and at what environmental cost - is a good one. | |
| Feb 10, 2020 at 11:55 | comment | added | Robotnik♦ | Not relevant to the question but: the conversation we had led into one about EVs vs Hydrogen fuel cells (HFCs) and the various technologies and efforts involved in large-scale replacement of fossil-fuels. quite interesting, but the mining point was the sticking point here. | |
| Feb 10, 2020 at 11:51 | history | asked | Robotnik♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |