Rare Earths Leave Toxic Trail to Toyota Prius, Vestas Turbine

From what I've been reading, Chinese use of these products within their country has grown to the point that they are being forced to reduce exports. Of course, they encourage foreign companies to build manufacturing plants within China for products that use REE!

Lynas is building a final processing plant in Malaysia that is expected to be online in the third quarter of this year so it looks like both Lynas and Molycorp will be providing these metals to industry before much longer. Of course the price will go up over what they have been selling for in the past, partially from demand but also due to the more stringent environmental requirements in their production. In the long run, these metals, along with uranium, may be more important to world energy use than petroleum.

Disclosure: Long on Lynas and Greenland Minerals & Energy

 

So ... how is this spin about Chinese manufactured stuff different from the same mentality as the, "Gorillas die because of rare earth materials in Prius batteries" folk lore.

The nice thing about the Leaf (AND its battery pack) eventually being built in the U.S. is that it's a teey little statement that there is at least ONE company here in the U.S. that is stepping up to the place and dealing with our own pollution ... rather than dumping it off if a far away place, for others to deal with it.

 

Has someone found a good description of how much of Prius' REE are in the traction battery vs. the electric motors? I ask because hybrids with lithium batteries and pure-electric vehicles will still have (some amount of) REE in their motors. The need for REE in the transporation system will not end when NiMH batteries are superceded.

Also of interest would be the amount of REE in wind turbines, say per rated megawatt output. Then we could see where various renewable energy pathways would take us in terms of REE resource requirements.

 

REE go into permanent magnets. I am not aware of their use in batteries. I can't imagine why they would be used in batteries, but I am willing to be educated.

REE are also used in fireworks and special effects. Anytime you see lots of sparks it's a fair bet that you are watching REE in action.

Tom

 

Hi gbee42,

Yes, there is Lanthanum in the NiMH electrolyte. Quite allot if I remember the threads about it. This is the key ingredient that gives the long life to the NiMH battery.

This was the contribution of the Ovshinski's to electric vehicle propulsion.

 

The war in Afghanistan may actually not be about oil or a pipeline.
Rare Earth under the land we occupy.
What a coincidence.
Rare Earth makes Afghanistan a "Green" war.

 

Another new PC thread discusses Toyota's development of induction motors that, as lacking magnets, also do not require REE. That will certainly be worth following as it is hard to imagine a future where REE become much less expensive.

If I am not mistaken, wind turbines all use permanent magnet generators so far.

 

Watch included video about advanced cars and lithium mining in Bolivia. Hopefully this plays for a while -

Bolivian Lithium to Power Electric Cars | Geology.com

 

Yes, shocked that the Chinese only mine a little cleaner than the Canadians used to mine. They do it much cleaner than the Europeans used to mine. How clean are the canadian's mining the oil sands? Let's face it we have shifted some of our pollution to china.

I would not say they were ruthless, their costs were lower since they did not care about the environment. We did so we just bought the metal from them. Now that they are using more of the metal they have raised the price. It is much lower rape of the earth than Europe has done in the past.

It also gets exaggerated. The pollution in total is huge but the pollution per vehicle is small. That does not mean that we shouldn't ask for less polluting methods. If the customers demanded it and were willing to pay the higher prices the Chinese would comply. What are the odds that toyota and gm ask nicely to pay more? I would pay more, but we have no labeling on cars saying where the components come from.

 

"Now, technically lithium isn't a rare earth metal. But it's highly prized as if it were a rare earth metal because it's a vital commodity for the emerging green energy sector. "

http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/lithium-rare-earth-stocks/2254

Here's a decent CNN video about Li the Volt and Bolivia who has 40% of the reserves -

Bolivian Lithium to Power Electric Cars | Geology.com

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I was talking mentioned the Leaf to a lady at Toastmaster last night, she starts in 'I heard mining Lithium for those electric cars is pretty toxic, so I wouldn't want to buy an electric or Prius car'

Expect to hear things like this from skeptics -

"According to the New York Times, Bolivia alone has as much as half the world's lithium reserves in remote salt deserts, and is contemplating nationalizing the industry. Bolivia could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium" through its Salar de Uyuni deposit, the paper said. Extracting is not particularly eco-friendly -- the most cost-effective method is evaporating brine in special ponds lined with toxic PVC plastic. Lithium is corrosive, and breathing its dust can irritate nose and throats; in big doses, it can cause fluid buildup in the lungs. It also presents a fire hazard, one big headache for battery developers.

They'll also say it leaves behind lots of toxic wastewater.

Lithium Shortage from Electric Cars, Hybrid Batteries - Electric Vehicles Lithium - The Daily Green​