Can electric cars kick the cobalt habit?

• Autores: Donna Lu
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3271, 2020, pág. 16
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Electric cars are getting cheaper and their sales are on the rise, but their future success may depend on ditching a key ingredient: the heavy metal cobalt. The mineral is used in the lithium-ion batteries that power most electric cars, and demand for it is steadily increasing. Here, Lu discusses an analysis by Elsa Olivetti at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her colleagues which found that there may be cobalt shortages if we don't start refining and recycling it more efficiently or in greater quantities. They estimate that global demand for cobalt will rise to between 235,000 and 430,000 tonnes by 2030--an amount that is at least 1.6 times the world's current capacity to refine the metal, as of 2016 figures.