the words people have to say, that's why we listen to every weekend on d w, 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 a welcome to tomorrow. today d w science program,

lithium is commonly used in batteries that power electric vehicles. the largest metal on is abundantly found. but only in small concentrations and mining, this is complex, expensive. i'm home full to the environment. and even when does it seem is contained within the batteries. it's still dangerous. exclusions and fires caused by lithium ion batteries after shorting damage or overheating time. and again, we see how dangerous thing can be the best one in the world is searching for originally for new battery technology. at the helm homes institute in the german city, a form researchers are trying to find a replacement for lithium as an energy source and quickly now

decides things this sort of vital. yeah, we don't have model. i'll tell you because it's expected that demand for batteries is going to grow very, very strongly. we are expecting a 4600 percent increase by 2013. yeah, yeah that's, that's who comes with us. the boy that that means we have to give back to the technology, a white material base we all, we have to bring abundant sheet and easily recyclable materials into play. with the side, the bottom of the, 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 for han listing may be a bundle,

but it can be made quickly enough to meet demands completely. 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 itself. audits understand that these are, you know, have larger units in place of the small box or yourself such a bit bigger than

a chocolate bar. when i'd be simply need less oxygen, let me have the site. as a result, you can accommodate much more storage material and the actual overall back to the design. using lithium, high and 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 ion batteries, the nail puncture test shows why these batteries are so dangerous. the resulting short circuit causes an explosion at 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 now of the battery smell

in the future, be able to be recharged $3.00 to $5000.00 times a charging stations. 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 charging and cold weather also causes problems the but the biggest helps yet in battery development are for sodium ion technology. 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 ion batteries are quite a bit heavier. you have 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 they 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 from lithium ion battery. then this is default timidly. the question is, how quickly are all the raw materials on the market? quickly will it 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 few years. but whether sodium or lithium, without natural resources, we wouldn't have any new batteries at all. heavy industries depends on the metal souls from roll materials. if the supply is caught, production lines everywhere, right? so how do you have an affinity or scarcity of rule materials, determines the market price, germany impulse missiles from all over the world. this has geologists on the hunt for new souls, is headquartered 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, desks and white heidi, this christian i offer or that contains cobalt from the democratic republic of congo, x. if it's, your helper is used for electricity from, you know,

relative to renewable energy technology for power, transmission and cobalt. i need for batteries and then back to the envelope gm and all. but as he is concerned about germany's role materials supplies isn't and women school placements currently facing a lot of challenges for care all over the world. supply chains have been disrupted, or even broken under the current you create in russia. situation of course, funds there a develops new concepts to keep politicians and industry leaders up to speed on risk so that impacts supply market prices. they focus on the so called mega trends . like they moved to electro mobility and we got trends and mega trends. the 1st and foremost global phenomena on to and among listings, wistar guessing on technology such as the lithium ion battery, a mobility, electrolysis 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 and price fluctuations prepared dossiers, and studies like this one with cobalt. you couldn't even imagine under that this green line is great for showing us how the cobalt price has more than doubled in the last 2 years on the london metal exchange on one side. this is because of 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 that's young. cobalt is important for lithium ion battery. in 202170 percent of the global market share was made 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 the

risk price is good sky, real good, further and deliveries may not be met the best adults and retail german firms to diversify, to move away from supply from only one country big for an item, and then one by a. so you know, or is it a roll? material is crazy cool. you look for a potential replacement, some more it so you try to replace stays materials without those, if possible. i know most of the places that's that's not always possible. special metals like rear x are needed urgently to build wind turbines. clear air ser phoned 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 86 percent of the global supply.

and in the middle that makes sense of, of the nucleus is a traveling through countries. then we try to get this rounded as possible, a picture of the whole sector. and i think 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 berlin based power shift, which campaigns against global inequality concerning human rights and environmental issues. you can always add this at 1st. we can cover everything that are 25 of us in the team. and yours are very important and bringing to light abuses and 2nd countries. and that helps us recognize developments inherently. 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 red, it's a chemical elements from the non tonight through the elements atrium is

a bad as well right of as a misleading name. as a 9th, a 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 the conduction of permanent magnets which are also used in wind turbines. at the beginning of 2023, a huge deposit of red as was discovered in sweden and untapped minium 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, some best separation and upgrading would home the environment. they've been mining iron or for many years in cuba, luna. 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 most to be added, exploration has detected more than a 1000000 tons of rare earth science and 4 to 5 years that we have ongoing expiration activities in this. the pulse that, which means that for us it's open,

it's not roles. 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 up fulfill its goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050. as anyone building wind turbines for e car batteries needs rare earth. after a press conference in the tunnels of the que roonan lines, sweden's minister of finance is thinking big man. yeah. hard and installed to store. yeah. so sweet and has a proud history of mine and have them installed, but i'm did some, but also a bright future ahead should come out there as 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 to i'm standing, i'm may have transitioning to renewable energy. the intellectual mobility for who knows me doesn't have to dependence on china. so you know, the dark t, my, you know, going on, they are going to be in the, if we can money in our own re or as in europe implementing better methods and claimant protection. but 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 rule 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 separated. but how does this work in detail? let's get the lego to understand it was a few iron box at least get recycled. it's often involves smelting. so essentially she took them to be mailed. but this uses lots of energy, creates toxic emissions, and you lose some of the materials. that's why 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 battery 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 and separate some of the fundamental materials. very, very simply speaking, this is what happens. the batteries are shredded, being symmetric 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 bas folks. hydro metallurgy are wet chemistry process to process black mass into battery gaming materials. what this means is that different chemicals get added to

the black mass which lead shapes different elements. these chemicals either make their way into the final products or are re used in 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 and nickel. so the end goal is that as we pull them out of the batteries, we're putting them backed into new batteries and that hasn't been, she didn't achieved yet at a high 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 bought to these 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 factories. girl, it will also make even more financial sense to recycle them. this is the in the,

i do worry that we, we hope that there is no verb in new jersey to keep our auto renew of materials that already produced. could be, we used to be a problem. let us read y. i want to find out more about room materials or are 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 small price as a thank you. come on to phones this week, a view 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 hers. a day on mars is just 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 temperatures swings between daytime and nighttime. because unlike earth and mars, the moon has no atmosphere to regulate 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, they are, it's axis is inclined almost as strongly as mars's all the shared commonalities mean that there atmosphere is have similar characteristics in comparative climate research that makes more sense atmosphere

a 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 tenants climate was more conducive to life 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. 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 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 ex, on march 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 of 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 is yet another potential source for us to explore in space. sounds far out, but in theory it seems possible some celestial bodies that passed by us on untapped gold mines nature. in 2015 and asked her why is it 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 which world sent to be worth $700.00 quintillion dollars. a mining asteroids scene just fear radical 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 was on the space shuttle. this had started a new gold rush in 2012, literally changed the co founder of google, as well behind the company planetarium. resources, which during the race to mine, asteroids in 2017. and that's i noticed it would pay

a visit to psyche. this is mindy open stanton who has, who has that psyche mission and important thing to know is that the thank you much and that i money is a pure science mission. but also the program is not about asteroid mining. it could help laid the groundwork for such missions in the future. crazy as it sounds, mining asteroids might not only be feasible, but also much more sustainable than mining on earth. and it actually turns out that the answers seems to be yes. andrea's hine 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 would 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 and 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. 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, needs the crash. you can sell it as a, as a much lower price. which means as you diminishing your profit margin. so you're operating your interest foot to the loss. and that makes sense, very unattractive for investors. carbon taxes and new technologies could change this equation, but it would still take several years for space mining to become profitable. investors do not want to wait that long. legit skis company failed to raise enough

funds, forcing it to a band and it's goal of mining asteroids? planetary resources didn't succeed in their ultimate goal to to mine asteroids. but i think it's 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 in economic goals. 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 and 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

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