CR123? Could we run out?

[blake711]

I just saw this article about Lithium supplies in the world. What happens if all the lithium gets wasted on rechargable cars? How will we power all our Cr123 cell lights? Freeking people are tring to save the earth but it could cause us all to be in the dark...





Blake

 

[Size15's]

I'm sure that long before it becomes an issue battery technology will have moved on. Remember what the world was like a decade ago. SureFire SF123A batteries have a ten year shelf-life. Can any of us even imagine what the world will be like in ten years from now let alone ten years from when the suggested lack of Lithium actually becomes an issue.

 

[Illum]

its sort of like asking when will we run out of sea salt...

by the time we're anywhere near depleting lithium technology might have advanced to the point where cr123as can be recycled

 

[ynggrsshppr]

What happens if all the lithium gets wasted on rechargable cars?

I'm not sure other people outside of CPF would say that we're wasting lithium on cars. They'd probably think we're wasting the stuff on our flashlights. :laughing:

 

[matrixshaman]

"On Earth, lithium is widely distributed, but because of its reactivity does not occur in its free form. In keeping with the origin of its name, lithium forms a minor part of almost all igneous rocks and is also found in many natural brines. Lithium is the thirty-first most abundant element, contained particularly in the minerals spodumene, lepidolite, petalite, and amblygonite. On average, Earth's crust contains 65 parts per million (ppm) lithium."
Also Lithium is recovered from areas in California, Nevada and North Carolina. It doesn't sound like something we will run out of soon.

 

[fishx65]

"On Earth, lithium is widely distributed, but because of its reactivity does not occur in its free form. In keeping with the origin of its name, lithium forms a minor part of almost all igneous rocks and is also found in many natural brines. Lithium is the thirty-first most abundant element, contained particularly in the minerals spodumene, lepidolite, petalite, and amblygonite. On average, Earth's crust contains 65 parts per million (ppm) lithium."
Also Lithium is recovered from areas in California, Nevada and North Carolina. It doesn't sound like something we will run out of soon.

O.K., I no longer consider myself smart!!!

 

[Led_Blind]

I think the article is saying that if we were to convert all vehicles to Li-on based electrics then there may not be enough to go round.

 

[Topper]

Could WE run out?? You might, I got lots.
Topper

 

[PAB]

There is a company "Eestor" that is claiming that it has a hybrid battery/supercapacitor that lasts 10 times as long as current batteries. They plan to sell it to electric car manufacturers. So I agree with Size15's. Before it becomes much of an issue, there will be alternatives.
http://www.slipperybrick.com/2007/01/new-battery-to-last-10-times-as-long-available-this-year/

 

[PhantomPhoton]

Uber-Capacitors are in the R&D stages right now, irrc-- high surface area carbon nanotube lined capacitor walls. And other hybrid capacitor technoligoes as well I'm sure.
By the time we "waste" all of our lithium we'll be charging up capacitors for most of our flashlight needs methinks.

 

[myk]

I'm waiting for the flashlight powered by wishes and carbon dioxyide

but one step beyond that, im thinking we run out of lithium and someone will figure out how to stack 3 1.2V nimh's into the size of a CR123 @ 3.6V 'stable' and 4.5V "hot" and we will deal with it.

 

[roadie]

naaaaaa

we should be more wary of the oil instead .....

Hope Fuel cell (PEM - Proton Exchange Membrane) will be cheaper in near future for consumers

Then will be cool to carry a small cainster of hydrogen gass around in the pocket ......

 

[Braka]

Well, honestly, if lithium cars were to make a genuinely big difference to the environment and they made a whole load of them, and there were no Li-Ion batteries anymore, I would just lump it, with a tear in my ear, since 2/3 of my lights wouldn't work any more. Though it seems rather pointless to use a power cource which is going to run out in a few years anyway.

Also I don't particularly expect to be alive in 10 years, so I always have that thought to comfort me.

I was just wondering... could you over-discharge a cheap Li-Ion car, and have it catch fire when you were recharging it? Would they blow up if you left them outside in Arizona? Wouldn't it be ironic if the headlamps were HID?

I didn't know lithium was the 31st nost common element. That sounds like a trivia night question, if your audience were industrial chemists.

Braka

 

[matrixshaman]

The very nature of our economy would drive the price of Lithium so high if it was getting scarce that car makers would be forced to find other sources of power and as mentioned above there are already numerous other options for power being developed.
The EEStor battery stuff could be super big - if they don't get crushed, bought out or made to disappear by big oil and other battery manufacturers. A quote on an EEstor run vehicle: "it will only take about $9 worth of electricity for an EESU-propelled car to travel 500 miles, compared to nearly $60 in gasoline." If these are made for other applications as they state it will also be big for our flashlights too I suspect.