in 45 minutes on the wi fi, he's got any issues with a lot, save who the energy saving nights, smartphones, computers, electric cars, wind turbines, we need metals for all of these things. but mining them is not just energy intensive. it's homes. the environment is recycling and alternative or could we source rule materials from space? that's and more coming up the kind of

welcome to tomorrow today d w science program, lithium is commonly used in batteries that power electric vehicles. the largest metal on is a bunch of the phones, but only in small concentrations and mining. this him is complex, expensive. i'm harmful to the environment. and even when does it seem is contained within the batteries. it's still dangerous. explosions and fires caused by lithium ion batteries, after shorting damage or overheating time. and again, we see how dangerous thing can be that's why the world is searching for which is late for new battery technology. at the helm holds institute in the true and city of researchers are trying to find

a replacement for lithium as an energy source and quickly that is. so i think this sort of vital. yeah, we don't have model. i'll tell you that because it's expected that demand for batteries is going to grow very, very strongly system. yeah. but we are expecting a 4600 percent increase by 2013. yeah, yeah that's, that's who comes with us. the toys is that means we have to give back to the technology, a white material base we all, since we have to bring abundant sheet and easily recyclable materials and to play with the side, the bottom of the all the meetings, feet of things, the rise in demand for battery storage is huge, with wind and solar power expansion, one of the main drivers. then there is the electro mobility sector. by 2045, they're expected to be 30000000 electric vehicles in germany alone,

that will need lithium for their batteries. misfire mazda 400 lifting, maybe a bundle, but it can be mind quickly enough to meet demands completely designs. that means we have to turn to materials that are widely available, but still do a very good job. and the ones that go to the inner structure of the lithium ion battery contains 3 problem matic materials. a positive terminal of cobalt, a negative terminal of graphite, and the lithium itself, which moves back and forth between the poles to load and discharge the battery. cobalt is points and it's and is now off and replaced by lift the iron phosphate to create what's known in the industry as an l. f. p. battery chinese firm b, y, d e has developed a new battery design because our technology still requires a lot of space and the battery cells understand, you know,

have larger units in place of the small battery cell, which are a bit bigger than a chocolate bar. and they simply need less packaging on the site. as a result, it could accommodate much more storage material and the actual overall battery does . i'm using lithium, high end chemistry in this space. saving battery design gives an amazing 1000 kilometers of range. the new l. f. p chemistry offers a much reduced range, but the batteries have other advantages. they don't require cobalt and are also 30 percent cheaper, as well as being much safer. in the case of lithium batteries, the nail puncture test shows why these batteries are so dangerous. the resulting short circuit causes an explosion and a fire that isn't easily put out. all of the batteries are completely different.

here, the nail test causes only an increase in temperature. also l a fee, battery smell in the future be able to be recharged $3.00 to $5000.00 times a charging patients. that's 10 times as much as current rechargeable batteries. but the range for the full battery is only 60 percent done. of a lithium ion battery and charging and cold weather also causes problems the but the biggest hopes yet in battery development are for sodium ion technology. as it replaces the batteries, lithium ions with sodium ions. this change in battery chemistry. also allows cobalt and graphite terminals to be replaced with more sustainable materials. but sodium and batteries are quite a bit heavier. if not, everything needs to be as light as

a cell phone battery, for example, in huge wind energy storage facilities such as these in australia, weight is not an issue. the sodium is produced from ford and every table salt, which is readily available in large quantities. sodium am batteries have a shorter range on a single charge, but the charge faster and are almost full again after just 15 minutes. another advantage, unlike almost all other batteries, they still deliver at 90 percent of their power in freezing temperatures. and even in the classic internal combustion engine, the starter batteries can be replaced by sodium batteries and within their toxic chemistry. after all, the global market for starter batteries is as large as that for lithium ion battery . then this is default timidly. the question is,

how quickly are all the raw materials on the market? now, this is how quickly will they be available and can they be installed for the production capacities are being prepared at the moment? that's where everyone is actually very well positioned on the next year. but whether sodium or lithium, without natural resources, we wouldn't have any new batteries at all. heavy industries depend on the natural source from real materials. if the supply is caught, production lines everywhere, right? to help the benefit it see or scarcity of room materials, determines the market price. germany impulse missiles from all over the world. as has geologists on the hunt from new sources. headquarters in berlin, the german minerals resorts agency darrow for short trades rule materials source all over the world to companies on behalf of the german government doesn't provide heidi this could file for or that contains cobalt from the democratic republic of

congo. x. if it's the helper is used for electricity from inability to renewable, energy technology for power, transmission and cobalt i need for batteries. and then both of the involvement the amanda alvarez is concerned about germany's role materials supplies, events and women's completion. it's currently facing a lot of challenges for kit all over the world. supply chains have been disrupted, or even broken under the current ukraine, russia situation, of course funds. there a develops new concepts to keep politicians and industry leaders up to speed on risk. so the impact supply, market price is focused on the so called mega trends, like the move to electron mobility make a time. so mega trends are 1st and foremost, global phenomena on kind of among listings west are guessing on technology such as the lithium ion, battery failure ability dialect, tullocks as for hydrogen, production, unreal material demand and the future maintenance includes sign down in this type

of energy transition some key role materials are hard to procure and becoming increasingly expensive. this means that geologists, us to act early, to warn others of possible supply bottlenecks, or price fluctuations prepared dossiers. and studies like this one with cobalt under the screen lane is great for showing us how the cobalt price is more than double in the last 2 years on the london mental exchange on one side. this is because of the increased demand on the other because of the problems to supply chains that we have had to deal with in the past few years. and then this young cobalt is important for lithium ion battery in 202170 percent of the global market share. it was mind in the democratic republic of congo which is being played for decades by political and social unrest. number 2 and the cobalt market

is russia. market share around 4 percent, but risk prices good sky, real good, further and deliveries may not be met by the doors and retail german firms to diversify, to move away from supply from only one country. excellent animal. and then one by a 2nd or is it a roll? material is crazy cool. you look for a potential replacement, some more it. so you try to replace those materials without those if possible. i know most of it was that but that's not always possible. special metals like rear x are needed urgently to build wind turbines, rear air, our phones worldwide, so never endure farm, only income phones, the separation and upgrading is done with the aid of assets. a large amount of toxic overburden is produced in the process of china's rhetoric demand

amongst the 8 to 6 percent of the global supply menu. and then if that makes sense, if of in the movies as a traveling through countries, then we try to get this rented as possible a picture of the whole 2nd sort of thing. we publish this information, which we also include in our consultancy service. and there are also shares, it's information with non governmental organizations, such as bel, in based power shift, which campaigns against global inequality concerning human rights and environmental issues. different, honest, honestly, we can cover everything that are 25 of us and the team and yours are very important and bringing to light abuses and 2nd countries. and that helps us recognize developments apparently. and it's also important for us studies and analysis for the reason. it's an important collaboration because the energy revolution can only truly be clean when the raw materials are procured fairly unsustainably

read. it's a chemical elements from the 9 to 9th, through the elements atrium, isabel, as well as the misleading name, as the 9th, the red, know all the colors range from stone to silver. and the quick to thomas when expose to oxygen will react quickly when they come into contact with both. one of the many applications in look, reduction of permanent magnets, which are also used in wind turbines. at the beginning of 2023, a huge deposit of rent, as was discovered in sweden, an untapped 1000000 tons is thought to be in the ground north of the arctic circle . but to this day, no permission has been granted to mind them the known method. so best separation and upgrading would home the environment they've been mining iron or for many years and key room. and the mine is considered one of the world's largest. if the head of the state online a company has his way, a new mind will soon be added. exploration has detected more than a 1000000 tons of rare earth science and 4 to 5 years. we have ongoing expiration

activities in this. the pulse of this means that for us it's open. it's not most, they don't actually know how big it is. but what we know today is by far the law just the pulse it off, already ease in your that might help your full fill. it's goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050. as anyone building wind turbines or e car, batteries needs rare or it's after a press conference in the tunnels of the queue, rena. mine's sweden's minister of finance is thinking big fine. yeah. hard and installed too. so yeah, so sweden has a proud history of mine and haven't installed from since some but also a bright future ahead shall come out there. and so many of the so called rare or

it's are critical in going green and meeting are ambitious climate targets. when i hit stuff that came up until now, europe has relied on imports and china dominates the industry. according to estimates by us geologist. the deposits in china are 40 times larger than those in sweden. environmental groups, hope that the deposits in northern europe will be mind in a greater way than in asia. it came off the i'm standing on may have transitioning to renewable energy, intellectual mobility for going to us made those have to dependent on china say, you know, the dirty, my, you know, going on. they are going to be anything. and if we can money in our own re or as in europe implementing better methods and climate protection to and this find is a real game changer and game changer. but it will take perseverance to reach that turning point and also the goodwill of the so many people who have lived up north since time immemorial. the area that they want to develop, run straight through the land of the reindeer herders. and additionally,

official approval and construction of a new mind could take 5 to 10 years instead of mining new role materials, could we recycle those that have already been processed and are in circulation? it's a feasible option, even when it comes to lithium, ion battery is used in electric vehicles. the batteries have to be shredded and the fundamental materials separates it. but how does this work in detail? let's get out of the leg or to understand it was a few i in box of these get recycled. it's often involves smelting. so essentially she took them until the melt. but this uses lots of energy, creates toxic emissions. and you lose some of the materials, that's what companies are coming up with new ways to recycle. you want to have as much as we can with high value materials that are, have taken a lot of effort to get over the ground. we want to use those carefully and as many

times as we can, this is canal felt the chief commercial officer at life cycle. lithium ion bought 3 recycling company from canada. we basically come up with a process designed specifically for this to have high recovery rates of the material. in the 1st stage, what we call or spoke is a mechanical process that breaks down the batteries in separate some of the fundamental materials. very, very simply speaking, this is what happens. the batteries are shredded beaks of matters in a non toxic solution. this is important because it prevents them from catching fire . and then the worst case blowing up then materials like plastic copper and l. u minium are separated from what the industry calls the black mass. this contains valuable materials like cobalt, nickel, and lithium. the 2nd app part of the process is the hub. and this is really a bespoke hydro metallurgy or when chemistry process,

the process black mass into battery gaming materials. what this means is that different chemicals get added to the black mass, which we chose different elements. these chemicals either make their way into the final products or reuse them the process. so this doesn't actually produce any waste water. you end up with the black mass separated into a single components like lithium cobalt, an nickel. so the end goal is that as we pull them out of the batteries, we're putting them back into new batteries and that hasn't been, she's been achieved yet at a highs scale. there's, there's elements of, of it around the world. but we want to help to, to continue to try that for it's hard to keep track of exactly so many lithium ion battery already get recycled mainly because they're often exported. but it's already happening more and more, especially in asia, where most of them are also produced as volumes of spent 5 to reschedule. it will also make even more financial sense to recycle them. this is the easy i do

well that we, we hope that there is no bird in new jersey tomorrow. and auto renew of materials that they already produced could be used in definitely let us read why i want to find out more about room materials. oh, you curious about something else from the world of science, send us a voice message or a video. if we answer your questions on the show, you even get a smart prize as a thank you. come on just phones or this week of you question is from can this do so done yet in columbia? why our researchers more interested in march than in the moon? the mars is our outer next door neighbor. it's more of it is further away from the sun than the earth. mars is the only other planet in our

solar system that humans could conceivably live on. that makes it, especially interesting. maurice has a comparable day and night for them to earn a day on mars is just the 37 minutes longer than a day on our planet. it's shaped our by over them's the days and nights are both 14 earth days long. with extreme temperature swings between daytime and nighttime, because unlike hers and mars, the moon has no atmosphere to regulates the warmth and the coldness. mars and earth also have similar like conditions as the sunsets on both plan would show. on top of that beer, its axis is inclined almost as strongly as mars's all the shared commonalities means that they're atmosphere is have similar characteristics in comparative

climate research that makes mars's atmosphere model of the earth's atmosphere. the moon would be of no use. the earth's atmosphere is primarily made of nitrogen and oxygen. it's the only planet in the solar system with liquid water on its surface. there was also water on mars 3 and a half 1000000000 years ago. has these river valley show, then the red plants climate was more conducive to lice and its atmosphere denser. but mars has lost a large part of its atlas fear. the a constant flow of particles from the sun blows parts of mars's upper atmosphere into space. the earth's atmosphere is largely protected against this by its magnetic fields. today, mars's atmosphere is only $100.00 the density of earth's. and the world that was once conducive to a life has turned into

a dry icy desert. water can only exist on the red planet as ice or vapor. there's even an ice covering the surface of its poles. and in the ground, there are rich reserves of important resources for mand outposts. in early 2022. europe's exxon mars trace gas orbiter discovered vast reserves of water ice under the 5 is my re now is the so called grand canyon of mars. the simulations are already in use to calculate whether it would be possible to set up an artificial magnetic field between mars and the sun to make so red sign it more conducive to life. again, air pressure and temperature would rise until the carbon dioxide ice at the north pole mills and sparks a greenhouse effect that turns the ground dice into rivers and sees it would be possible, at least in theory. now back to the topic of rule materials,

there's yet another potential source for us to explore in space. sounds far out, but in series it seems possible. some celestial bodies that tossed by us on untapped gold mines. nature. in 2015, an asteroid zip passed close to our planet was estimated to contain more platinum than has ever been money done. or the 14th asteroid. 16 psyche, a metal rich world set to be worth $700.00 quintillion dollars. a mining asteroids scene just. they are ready to go for a long time because space travel was just too expensive, but that's changing a seat on a space x walk. it is 3 times cheaper than it wants. i'm the space shuttle. this has started a new gold rush in 2012 literally page, the co founder of google products well behind the company planetary resources which

during the race to mine, asteroids in 2017. and then i noticed it would pay a visit to psyche. this is mindy open stanton who has a massive psyche mission and a part of the thing you mentioned that i money is a pure science mission, but the program is not about asteroid mining. it could help lay the groundwork for such missions in the future. the crazy as it sounds, mining asteroids might not only be feasible, but also much more sustainable than mining on earth or. and it actually turns out that the answer is, seems to be yes. andrea's height is a researcher who has actually crunch the numbers. the estimates that the rocket fuel needed to go and bring back one kilogram of platinum from an asteroid would release 150 kilograms of c o 2 into the earth's atmosphere. terrestrial mining with

generate 40000 kilograms. so asteroid mining could be hundreds of times less polluting. essentially, the main reason is there's almost no other substance you can mine, which you can generate step much greenhouse gases outsourcing, mining to space would decrease pollution on earth. but there's some economic problem in terms of sustainability and again, when in terms of economics, it's not profitable yet. for me, if you mine like 5 times of the cost of them you have on this right now, it means that the market price is willing if the crash you can sell it as a much lower price, which means as you diminishing your profit margin. so you offer it in your interest put to the loss and that makes so it's very unattractive for investors. carbon taxes and new technologies could change this equation, but it would still take several years for space wanting to become profitable.

investors do not want to wait that long. levinsky is company failed to raise enough funds, forcing it to a band and its goal of mining asteroids. planetary resources didn't succeed in their ultimate goal to to mine asteroids. but i think it succeeded in a lot of ways of the steps to get the business case doesn't quite yet close, but we couldn't make it get there. we can find a way, and i think it is in some ways the inevitable future times because the kansas, it's been our history as long as we've been able to track it from backwards acumen are, the new inventions can make space mine and economical. just a few decades ago, the very technology you're using to watch this video seemed impossible. today. we can use satellites to be the internet everywhere on the planet. 101520 years. a lot can happen. one day mining on earth may be obsolete

a bit like using candles to light your room. and that was this week's episode of tomorrow. today dw sign show. thanks for joining us. control next time. stay curious by the

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. this is dw, and use live from berlin, is what else? military to class us data for a lot of to how much 5 thousands of rockets from gaza, the militant as long as the group hamas loans has a massive miss autotech and is really a response by striking targets in gaza. we bring you the latest developments also coming up. this is nobel peace prize goes to jail women's rights activist. now august and well hummadi is on a ta for a 3 decade struggle against the old oppression of women in iran and pollution on

the death penalty.