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As I understand it, these types of batteries are not rechargeable. They would need to be taken back to a factory and be recycled. I'd like to know how energy e

As I understand it, these types of batteries are not rechargeable. They would need to be taken back to a factory and be recycled. I'd like to know how energy efficient the recycling stage would be. I've not seen that information anywhere so far.

JoeAltmaier 12y ago
Recycling is not desirable unless the battery casing is valuable. The alumina is nearly worthless, especially in small chunks (and to an aluminum plant 200kg is tiny). Instead I'd like to see some continuous process, granulated aluminum perhaps, and the alumina simply ejected as granules. Its present everywhere already, so not an un-green thing to do.
- jessaustin 12y ago
  You mean the alumina ejection will be a manual procedure performed by the car's owner or mechanic, right? When I first read this I pictured a spray of dust out the tailpipe. I'm sure there would be complaints...
  - JoeAltmaier 12y ago
    Yes I meant exactly that. Its one of the least objectionable things a car could spray (dribble?) out the tailpipe.
jcr 12y ago
Tesla has automated battery pack replacement down to 90 seconds, so the yearly replacement doesn't seem like a big deal. The Aluminum-air batteries do wear out eventually as they turn the aluminum into aluminum hydroxide, but they can be recycled. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything official on recycling efficiency, and I spent some time digging.
- avoid3d 12y ago
  Note that these batteries wouod have to be replaced every time they are empty not 'once a year .
  - jcr 12y ago
    http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248966/Electric_car_battery_tech_lets_you_go_1_000_miles_between_charges http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248966/Electric_car_...
BugBrother 12y ago
It seems that the Al smelter generates lots of CO2, so greenhouse effects might just be moved closer to hydropower plants... :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_smelting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_smelting Edit: It would be interesting to see how much Al (not total weight of the system) is used/km. According to wikipedia there should be about 1.5 mol CO2/CO per mol Al created (depends on how the process is tuned). Car ads declare how much CO2/km they release, right? Anyone know their car engines? (I live in a city center and only drive on vacation.) Edit 2: This Al energy source is cool, but what everyone here really want is some hard data comparing it to a normal hybrid energy in costs, how easy it is to use and (maybe also) greenhouse effects. That the articles doesn't discuss that is probably a good answer.

JoeAltmaier 12y ago

Recycling is not desirable unless the battery casing is valuable. The alumina is nearly worthless, especially in small chunks (and to an aluminum plant 200kg is tiny). Instead I'd like to see some continuous process, granulated aluminum perhaps, and the alumina simply ejected as granules. Its present everywhere already, so not an un-green thing to do.

jessaustin 12y ago
You mean the alumina ejection will be a manual procedure performed by the car's owner or mechanic, right? When I first read this I pictured a spray of dust out the tailpipe. I'm sure there would be complaints...
- JoeAltmaier 12y ago
  Yes I meant exactly that. Its one of the least objectionable things a car could spray (dribble?) out the tailpipe.

jcr 12y ago

Tesla has automated battery pack replacement down to 90 seconds, so the yearly replacement doesn't seem like a big deal. The Aluminum-air batteries do wear out eventually as they turn the aluminum into aluminum hydroxide, but they can be recycled. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything official on recycling efficiency, and I spent some time digging.

avoid3d 12y ago
Note that these batteries wouod have to be replaced every time they are empty not 'once a year .
- jcr 12y ago
  http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248966/Electric_car_battery_tech_lets_you_go_1_000_miles_between_charges http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248966/Electric_car_...

BugBrother 12y ago

It seems that the Al smelter generates lots of CO2, so greenhouse effects might just be moved closer to hydropower plants... :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_smelting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_smelting Edit: It would be interesting to see how much Al (not total weight of the system) is used/km. According to wikipedia there should be about 1.5 mol CO2/CO per mol Al created (depends on how the process is tuned). Car ads declare how much CO2/km they release, right? Anyone know their car engines? (I live in a city center and only drive on vacation.) Edit 2: This Al energy source is cool, but what everyone here really want is some hard data comparing it to a normal hybrid energy in costs, how easy it is to use and (maybe also) greenhouse effects. That the articles doesn't discuss that is probably a good answer.