View Single Post
Old 12-02-2010, 05:20 PM   #6 (permalink)
Ryland
Master EcoModder
 
Ryland's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 3,903

honda cb125 - '74 Honda CB 125 S1
90 day: 79.71 mpg (US)

green wedge - '81 Commuter Vehicles Inc. Commuti-Car

Blue VX - '93 Honda Civic VX
Thanks: 867
Thanked 433 Times in 353 Posts
Lead acid batteries have a core charge or bounty as you put it because they are required to, but even if they didn't they would still have a 12 cent per pound scrap value, T105 golf cart batteries (popular lead acid battery) weigh 67 pounds each and electric cars like mine have 8 of them, Chevy S-10 conversions have 20 or more of these batteries.
From memery the Nissan Leaf has a 500 pound battery, 7 pounds of that is lithium a few pounds of plastic a pound or less is iron, even less then that is carbon the rest of that 500 pounds is copper and aluminum, copper has a scrap value of $1.50 to $2 per pound depending on the market that day, Aluminum last I checked was around 45 cents per pound.
Now the expensive part is that you can't just split a charged lithium battery open, it will short out and over heat, it has very fine layers half the thickness of a sheet of paper, each cell has 130 or so layers from what I am told, each layer being a sheet of copper foil, aluminum foil and lithium paste in a plastic envelope.
So if you discharge them they are safe but if there is damage and you can not be 100% sure that it is safe to grind up and cut appart then you have to freeze it to cryogenic temps and that is part of the cost, so is the man power to take the packs appart.
Just like hybrid battery packs there are people who I'm sure will take appart lithium EV packs, sort and match cells and resell used packs for extended range, home built ev's, quick charging stations that need a battery buffer and of course batteries to act as buffers on the grid as well.
  Reply With Quote