Sadly, those old flooded lead- acid batteries that have such a miserable energy density also
'reuse and recycle' at a very high percentage. So when you take your golf cart batteries to
Dyno and exchange them for 'rebuilt' batteries, you're contributing very little pollution
to the planet, despite hauling around #400 of lead and acid on the green, two pretty unpleasant substances.
The cases are unsealed and reused, the acid reprocessed (mostly just filtered)
and the lead plates are resmelted IF needed. Net waste, a few pounds, energy cost quite low.
The lithium 18650's in a Tesla, not so much. We cut one (an 18650, not a Tesla) apart in the shop years ago,
and to get such a high density, the thing is packed full. Mechanically, it's not designed to come apart, and
once you get it apart, it doesn't lend itself to easy mechanical separation at all. They can't be 'smelted'
as they'll just burn- once they catch fire, you may as well use the heat, because there's no stopping that.
A fireman said recently- "about the only thing that could burn this place down is 4 Teslas parked nose to tail."
Used lithium batteries are very expensive to re-purpose safely- each cell has to be monitored, since
each used cell has a different capacity. Overcharging or over- depleting one cell can make it go Sony,
and then the whole pack joins in from the intense heat. I've been working on this- it's fun, but not trivial.
Tesla's larger 2170 is pretty much the same as a 18650, but no idea if scale will help at all with disassembly,
or if maybe (yeah, I'm not optimistic) they're built to be dismantled, as Dyno's lead- acids are.
Last I heard they are trying an even- larger 4680, but as diameter increases, cooling problems exponentiate*,
so given that an S would overheat its pack after 3 laps, I skeptic from my couch.
I suspect in a few more years, it's going to become a real solid waste issue. I also suspect some manufacturers
are going to prove to be really messy (Tesla) and others, not so bad, as
the larger Toyota, Mercedes and Nissan prismatic cells may be better, from a reuse and recycling standpoint.
They are certainly easier to re- purpose and reshuffle, as the larger, square cell size makes monitoring and re- packing
very much easier, and the square shape helps with liquid cooling, as well.
I'm a huge electric car fan- but sugar- coating them isn't doing anyone any favors. They're a big step forward,
but that doesn't mean that there aren't real problems with them. We're a bit more experienced now than we
were with petrol engined cars, so mitigating the problems early makes so much more sense than blindly dashing
in with moustaches waxed and 6- shooters blazing. They're never going to work for everything and everyone, and
with significant luck and hard work, eventually they'll be a stepping stone to something even better (Mr. Fusion(tm)?)
I'm not holding my breath, because trains were far better in almost all regards,
and yet, who wants to ride a train? Oh, wait- if there was one, I would...
But they didn't make rich people richer easy enough, so they were 'depreciated'.
Thank you for listening to my Tedex Talkex.
t
*I just affixed that up. It made me happy.