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Zinc is very important in the diet and its deficiency is very common. Our food is already becoming scarce in zinc, potentially needing supplements from mined mi

by rbx 7y ago

Zinc is very important in the diet and its deficiency is very common. Our food is already becoming scarce in zinc, potentially needing supplements from mined minerals. But these are not projected to last very long either [1]. This doesn't make me very excited for using it for batteries at all. [1] https://www.iatp.org/documents/scarcity-of-micronutrients-in-soil-feed-food-and-mineral-reserves https://www.iatp.org/documents/scarcity-of-micronutrients-in...

wolfi1 7y ago
i wouldn't worry about Zinc, men need 11 mg/day, women even less. The common battery, the Leclanché element, already consist of Zinc, but it is not advisable to recharge them (danger of explosion). In the 90s people even claimed the could safely recharge the Leclanché element, so I could imagine the have overcome these problems
- jandrese 7y ago
  A kilogram of Zinc costs about $2.50[1] and is enough for an adult man for three months. There is no zinc crunch in the foreseeable future. Plus if it really became a problem you could recycle the zinc out of old batteries. [1] https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/zinc-price https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/zinc-price
  - onemoresoop 7y ago
    1 kg for 3 months? Maybe 3 lifetimes..
    - logfromblammo 7y ago
      To show the math: 1 kg Zn * 1000 g / kg * 1000 mg / g * 1 day / 11 mg Zn * 1 year / 365.2425 day * 1 male lifespan / 76.04 years = 3.27 lifetimes. The amount of Zn in one US post-1982 penny is 2.5 g (ignoring the copper cladding), which is 0.62 of a year's requirement.
    - jandrese 7y ago
      Bah, you're right. I put in a KG instead of G in my calculation, so 3000 months instead of 3 months. In any case I am not worried about running out even if we go whole hog on these batteries.
BubRoss 7y ago
What relevance does this have? Do you think zinc is scarce?
whyfy 7y ago
In addition, eating foods that contain zinc makes this point moot. Meat, shellfish, nuts, even dairy

by rbx 7y ago

wolfi1 7y ago

i wouldn't worry about Zinc, men need 11 mg/day, women even less. The common battery, the Leclanché element, already consist of Zinc, but it is not advisable to recharge them (danger of explosion). In the 90s people even claimed the could safely recharge the Leclanché element, so I could imagine the have overcome these problems

jandrese 7y ago
A kilogram of Zinc costs about $2.50[1] and is enough for an adult man for three months. There is no zinc crunch in the foreseeable future. Plus if it really became a problem you could recycle the zinc out of old batteries. [1] https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/zinc-price https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/zinc-price
- onemoresoop 7y ago
  1 kg for 3 months? Maybe 3 lifetimes..
  - logfromblammo 7y ago
    To show the math: 1 kg Zn * 1000 g / kg * 1000 mg / g * 1 day / 11 mg Zn * 1 year / 365.2425 day * 1 male lifespan / 76.04 years = 3.27 lifetimes. The amount of Zn in one US post-1982 penny is 2.5 g (ignoring the copper cladding), which is 0.62 of a year's requirement.
  - jandrese 7y ago
    Bah, you're right. I put in a KG instead of G in my calculation, so 3000 months instead of 3 months. In any case I am not worried about running out even if we go whole hog on these batteries.

BubRoss 7y ago

What relevance does this have? Do you think zinc is scarce?

whyfy 7y ago

In addition, eating foods that contain zinc makes this point moot. Meat, shellfish, nuts, even dairy