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Life cycle of Lithium-Ion Batteries

The popularity and advantages of Lithium-Ion batteries (LIB) over the conventional Lead-acid batteries  are obvious as soon as it was introduced decades ago. It is now used from hearing aids to electric vehicles. An article in the spring 2018 publication of the US National of Academy of Engineering (The Bridge) carries the above title. Here are my “take-away’s” from the article which are interesting and instructive for all human produced things we consumers use.

1. Source material - Graphite and Cobalt used in the production of LIB are almost sole sourced from China and the Congo Republic respectively. For obvious reasons, this introduced uncertainties for battery manufacturers.

2. Disposing of LIB is a problem. Many US States already ban the disposal of LIB in landfills. Separate re-cycle/re-claiming processes are expensive at present.

3. Re-use of LIBs are possible in secondary applications. These are being considered and developed.

Human action/decision/production often have unforeseen and unintended consequences in a globalized world. Future development of civilization is a complex problem. Collectively, will human beings have the wisdom to insure our future survival