profitable

Falling Lithium Prices | Earth Wise

May 1, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Lithium, the key element in the batteries that power electric cars, as well as smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers, is sometimes called white gold. Over time, the price of the metal has gone up and up. But recently, and surprisingly, the price of lithium has actually gone down, helping to make electric vehicles more affordable.

Over the first couple of months of this year, the price of lithium has dropped by nearly 20%. The price of cobalt, another important component of vehicle batteries, has fallen by more than half. Even copper, another battery material, has seen its price drop by 18%.

Many analysts predicted that prices of these commodities would stay high or even climb higher. The reason for the decline, as well as whether it is likely to persist, is the subject of much debate.

Some experts believe that the price drops are a result of demand not being as high as expected, perhaps related to slowing sales growth of EVs in Europe and China after certain subsidies expired. Other industry experts said that the drop was a result of new mines and processing plants providing additional supply sooner than was thought possible.

Despite the price drops, mining and processing lithium remains an extraordinarily profitable business. It costs from $5,000 to $8,000 to produce a ton of lithium that sells for ten times that amount. With such fat profit margins, there is no shortage of banks and investors eager to finance lithium mining and processing projects. Such profit margins are probably not sustainable and that will likely result in more reasonable prices over time.

There is plenty of lithium in the world. The huge demand for it is a recent phenomenon and the world is still working out how to meet that demand.

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Falling Lithium Prices Are Making Electric Cars More Affordable

Photo, posted January 9, 2023, courtesy of Phillip Pessar via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Capturing Methane To Feed Fish | Earth Wise

December 30, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Methane in the atmosphere is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Its warming potential is about 85 times that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. It also worsens air quality by increasing atmospheric ozone. Many human activities add methane to the atmosphere, notably emissions from landfills and oil and gas facilities.

Capturing methane from these sources for subsequent use is currently uneconomical but new research from Stanford University analyzes the market for using the methane to feed bacteria to produce fishmeal.

Methane-consuming bacteria called methanotrophs can be grown in chilled, water-filled bioreactors containing pressurized methane, oxygen, and nutrients. The bacteria produce a protein-rich biomass that can be used as fishmeal in aquaculture. This could offset demand for fishmeal made from small fish or plant-based feeds that require land, water, and fertilizer.

Some companies already do this using natural gas provided by utility pipelines, but it would be far better for the environment to use methane emitted at large landfills, wastewater treatment plants, and oil and gas facilities.

Consumption of seafood has more than quadrupled since 1960, depleting wild fish stocks. Farmed fish now provide half of all the animal-sourced seafood we eat.

The Stanford research analyzed the cost of methanotrophic fishmeal production under various scenarios and found it to be very competitive with and in some cases considerably cheaper than current market prices for fishmeal.

According to the study, this process could profitably supply total global demand for fishmeal with methane captured in the U.S. alone.

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Stanford researchers reveal how to turn a global warming liability into a profitable food security solution

Photo, posted April 30, 2017, courtesy of Artur Rydzewski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Second Life For Electric Car Batteries | Earth Wise

June 17, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The number of electric cars around the world is growing steadily. Battery technology continues to improve and the battery packs in the cars can have a long life. Generally, the batteries are considered to require replacement only when their range has dropped below 80% of its original value. Many are warranted to last for 8 to 10 years or more than 100,000 miles. Some seem to do much better than that.

But however long it takes, there will eventually be a wave of used batteries whose performance is no longer deemed sufficient for vehicle use. A new study, published in the journal Applied Energy, looked at the application of used vehicle batteries as backup storage for grid-scale solar photovoltaic installations where they could perform for more than a decade in this less demanding role.

The study looked at the economics of several scenarios including running a solar farm with no battery back up, running the same farm with brand-new batteries, and running the farm with a battery array made of repurposed vehicle batteries.

They found that the used EV battery array, if managed properly, could be a good, profitable investment provided that the batteries cost less than 60% of their original price. They looked at the technical issues of screening batteries and combining batteries from different cars to work together. They also looked at the economics of removing batteries from cars, collecting them, checking them over, and repackaging them.

Overall, they found that reusing vehicle batteries could ultimately meet half the forecasted demand for renewable energy backup storage over the next 10 years and would be both a technical and an economic success story.

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Solar energy farms could offer second life for electric vehicle batteries

Photo, posted June 10, 2011, courtesy of Nick Ares via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

China And Plastic Waste

April 26, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In January 2018, China enacted its “National Sword” policy which banned the import of most plastics and other materials headed for that country’s recycling processors. Those processors had handled nearly half of the world’s recyclable waste for the past quarter century. China took this step because the deluge of soiled and contaminated materials was overwhelming its processing facilities and creating yet another environmental problem for the country, this time not even of its own making.

Prior to China’s ban, 95% of the plastics collected for recycling in the European Union and 70% in the U.S. were sold and shipped to Chinese processors. A combination of favorable rates for shipping in cargo vessels that carried Chinese goods abroad and low Chinese labor rates made it a very profitable enterprise.

Before China’s ban, only 9% of globally discarded plastics were being recycled and 12% were burned. The rest ended up in landfills or simply dumped into the environment. Over the coming decade, as many as 11 million tons of plastic will have to find a new place to be processed or otherwise disposed of. There is already evidence that plastic waste is accumulating in countries that are dependent on exporting. In many places, including a number of American cities, there are curtailed collections and new restrictions on what kinds of plastics are accepted.

Some experts are hopeful that China’s ban might actually have an upside if it leads to better solutions for managing the world’s waste. North America and Europe need to expand processing capabilities and manufacturers need to make their products more easily recyclable. Mostly, the Chinese ban should be a wake-up call to the world on the need to greatly reduce single-use plastics.

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Piling Up: How China’s Ban on Importing Waste Has Stalled Global Recycling

Photo, posted August 8, 2017, courtesy of Sino-German Urbanisation Partnership via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.