Recharge Your Batteries | Mediateca de EducaMadrid

Welcome to a new episode of Recharge Your Batteries, an educational program brought to you by real scientists. 00:00:00

Our special guests tonight are... 00:00:13

What car do you think was first invented? The electric car or the petrol car? 00:00:16

It may seem weird, but the electric car was invented before, around the 19th century. 00:00:23

This picture shows the first electric engine, which has been improved little by little until the ones we can enjoy today. 00:00:28

Firstly, we will see what happens with the demand on electric cars. 00:00:35

As you can see, this demand hasn't stopped growing, and in the last 6 months of 2018, 1 million vehicles have been sold. 00:00:38

The electric vehicles revolution is getting a cruising speed. 00:00:47

In 2040, the selling of electric car will reach the 41 million that will be the 35% of the vehicles on the road. 00:00:51

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a huge evolution in lead-acid batteries. 00:01:00

Their site was reduced, they offered more voltage and their autonomy increased. 00:01:05

During the 20th century, the nickel-cadmium batteries were developed. 00:01:09

They stood out because of their efficiency at low temperatures, but their components were very expensive, 00:01:13

expensive, so they adapted better to the aviator sector. 00:01:18

The newest batteries nowadays are the lithium-ion batteries, the LIV. 00:01:21

They double their energetic density, they were three times smaller and they increased 00:01:26

their autonomy as well as their power. 00:01:30

Cobalt is a chemical element with atomic number 27 and atomic weight 59 that belongs to the 00:01:32

group of metals. 00:01:37

Cobalt is of key importance in the manufacturing of electric batteries. 00:01:39

It is used together with other metals such as lithium or manganese due to a property 00:01:42

it has that consists in boosting the features of these other metals and increasing the light, 00:01:47

efficiency and performance of the battery. Currently from 6 to 12 kilograms are used 00:01:52

on the batteries of electric cars. Our special guest Johan Apperson was the man who discovered 00:01:57

lithium. What are you going to tell us Johan? Greetings my fellow scientists, I will teach you 00:02:02

essencias with a bit of music. 00:02:06

First of all, I explored the Lithium Triangle. 00:02:08

made up by Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. 00:02:38

Here we can find more than 85% of our planet's lithium. 00:02:41

This is a picture of a salt flat, the place where lithium extractions mostly occur. 00:02:46

The liquid found here is pumped out and then left to evaporate. 00:02:51

What remains is lithium. 00:02:54

Now let's go to the Democratic Republic of Congo. 00:02:55

This country is the biggest producer of cobalt, 00:02:58

followed by Russia, Australia and Canada. 00:03:01

Scientist Georgina will give us more data about this raw material. 00:03:04

This metal, also known as blue gold of the 21st century, comes mainly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 00:03:08

This material represents only 0.001% of the raw materials of the Earth's crust that, as we have seen, are not abandoned at all. 00:03:15

The cobalt extracted is taken to China, where it is processed and later on distributed throughout the whole world. 00:03:24

It is expected that the demand of cobalt will increase significantly and, as a result, its 00:03:30

price will increase too. 00:03:36

In fact, the price of the metal has surged to 95 euros per kilogram in 2018. 00:03:38

Therefore, the seek of other cobalt supplies seems necessary. 00:03:44

Investigating, I discovered that the Spanish company Gravat has presented batteries made 00:03:48

with a graphene polymer which, if used in electric vehicles, it would allow an autonomy 00:03:54

of 800 km. It occupies between 20% and 30% less than a lithium-ion battery, and could 00:03:59

be charged in just 5 minutes. Graphene is a nanomaterial formed by pure carbon and whose 00:04:08

characteristics are hardness, flexibility, and elasticity. Solid-state batteries have 00:04:14

a solid electrolyte that leads to higher energy density, faster charging times, and a reasonable 00:04:21

Price. Manufacturing a normal lithium-ion battery takes from 50 to 60 days, which is a really long 00:04:27

period of time. Solid-state batteries could take less than 10 days in manufacturing. Companies such 00:04:34

as Volkswagen and Toyota will use this technology by 2025 in order to increase the autonomy of an 00:04:41

electric car. In the future, cars will obtain energy from the sun. Others say that it will be 00:04:48

the roads the one that accumulate electricity the waste products generated are a risk for the 00:04:54

environment the european union only recycles the five percent of them according to current laws 00:05:00

the producers are the one that should bear with the costs of recycling some research is being made 00:05:05

using the remains of raw materials of old batteries into new ones or using them as energy storage cells 00:05:12

In Russia, there are red rivers due to nickel spillings, and in the DRC, very toxic gases 00:05:18

are released to extract cobalt. 00:05:25

In 2014, there were 13.5 million tons of lithium reserves, from which 36,000 tons were processed. 00:05:26

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are over 40,000 children working in the mines 00:05:35

to extract cobalt. 00:05:41

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