Batteries: We can’t live without them but we know they are environmentally problematic.
Korean researchers are working on that! And with some success.
One of the big problems with the kind of batteries it takes to run a car, or a computer, for that matter, is that they require expensive metals–lithium, cobalt, nickel–that in turn require invasive mining techniques. Those mining techniques are also improving, but it still pays to reclaim those metals from batteries that have died for the last time.
The current process for recovering precious metals by recycling creates toxic wastewater. The Koreans have discovered a process for recovery a higher percentage of the precious metals–lithium especially–without producing toxic waste. Moreover, the new battery components created from the metals recycled by the new process extend the lifespan of the new battery by 30%.
Read all about this encouraging development here.
Care of Creation 