Battery toxicity

The villain here is the battery. While appreciating the fuel efficiency of a hybrid car, most of us forget to think about this villain.
What are the hybrid batteries made of? Aren’t they the same lead or nickel, which dispose the carcinogenic waste to the surrounding? Are the risks reduced if they are used in the form of hybrid?

There are many types of car batteries available in the market. The most common among them are those made of lead or nickel-cadmium. Lead is one of the most hazardous chemicals used in the automobile technology. Long exposure to lead can result in brain and kidney damage and also causes hearing impairment. As lead is the cheapest raw material for the batteries, 90% of the car manufacturers are motivated to use lead in the batteries.

The auto industry uses over one million metric ton of lead every year. A report published in 2003 by Environmental Defense and the Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, Mich., revealed that all the vehicles on the road used about 2.6 million metric tons of lead at that time.

As hybrid technology is proposed in order to reduce the environmental hazards, using a lead or nickel-cadmium batteries in it sounds to be uncivilized. Most of the hybrids use either Lithium or nickel-metal batteries to avoid such apprehension among the environmentalists. Though the Honda Civic hybrid uses a small lead battery to start the motor, its main operation depends on a big lithium ion battery that is placed between the rear seats and the trunk of the car.

The department of Environmental Defense conducted a research in order to compare the environmental impacts of the materials used in the hybrid batteries, viz., lead, nickel and lithium. The report analyzed the different stages such as the extraction, purification, use and disposal of all the three metals. The result showed that lithium is the least harmful, followed by nickel. Lead is the least approved by the panel. Though lithium batteries got a green signal, the Environmental Defense agency had a concern about the combination of lithium batteries. Though lithium can be combined with different metals to be used in the battery, using certain metals such as cadmium could pose a danger to the environment.

Nickel is a carcinogenic metal, and as long as the technology of recycling the disposed nickel does not take the complete shape, this threat remains. There is optimism about the hybrid batteries that they are offered with lifetime warranty, approximately 8-10 years, depending on the manufactures. Moreover, most of the car companies encourage the customers to return the used batteries for a cash offer. Toyota offers $200 as a bounty for every returned battery. With a warranty offered for a minimum eight years, there is a hope that at least five long years are ahead in order to work out a recycling technology for the hybrid batteries.

Honda, Toyota, and other leading manufacturers are working on the possibility of replacing the entire lead and nickel batteries to rechargeable lithium batteries and thus offer a solution to the hovering issues on the feasibility of hybrid cars.

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February 19, 2007 | Filed Under Technology