Electric cars (EVs) seem very excited at first glance. But when you look closer, it becomes transparent that they have a really extensive carbon footprint and some drawbacks in terms of extraction of lithium, cobalt and other metals. And they don’t alleviate congestion in overcrowded cities.
We will soon deal with the lithium factor, but we will focus mainly on the carbon footprint of electric cars.
The increasing use of lithium-ion batteries as the main source of power in electronic devices, adding cell phones, laptops and electric cars, has contributed to a 58% increase in lithium extraction over the past decade worldwide. Lithium is unlikely to be extracted in the short term, but there is an environmental drawback.
The extraction procedure requires giant amounts of water, which can lead to depletion of aquifers and damage the ecosystems of The Atacama salt flat in Chile, the world’s most giant lithium extraction site. But researchers have developed strategies to obtain lithium from water.
When it comes to climate change, it’s that electric cars emit less carbon than traditional vehicles, and how much less.
[Read: Why the UK’s decarbonisation plan is good, but excellent]
The most productive comparison is based on life cycle research that attempts to take into account all carbon dioxide emissions when manufacturing and recycling vehicles. Life cycle estimates are never fully complete and emission estimates vary across the country, with other circumstances.
In New Zealand, 82% of electricity generation energy came from renewable resources in 2017. With those higher degrees of renewable electric power to charge electric cars, compared to Australia or China, say, electric cars are more suitable for New Zealand. But that’s the only component of the story. It cannot be assumed that electric cars in New Zealand in general have a carbon footprint close to zero or are completely sustainable.
An emission lifecycle investigation takes into account 3 sec: production (also called cradle-to-gate), use (well-to-wheel) and recycling (fall-to-cradle).
In this phase, the main processes are the extraction of ore, the processing of materials, the manufacture of vehicle parts and the encounter of vehicles. A recent study of car emissions in China estimates emissions from cars equipped with internal combustion engines at this stage at approximately 10.5 tons of carbon dioxide (tCO2), compatible with automobile emissions, at emissions from an electric car of approximately thirteen tons (including the electric motor). car battery). manufacturing).
Emissions from the manufacture of a lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide battery were estimated at 3.2 tonnes. While the life of the vehicle is estimated at 150,000 kilometers, emissions from the production phase of an electric car are higher than for fossil fuel cars. But for lifetime emissions, the test shows that electric car emissions are 18% lower than those of fossil fuel cars.
In the use phase, the emissions of an electric car are due to its upstream emissions, which have the amount of electricity from fossil or renewable sources. A fossil fuel car’s emissions are due to upstream emissions and exhaust emissions.
Upstream electric vehicle emissions basically have the percentage of zero- or low-carbon resources in the country’s electric power generation mix. Perceive how electric car emissions vary by the percentage of renewable electricity in a country, Australia and New Zealand.
In 2018, Australia is consistent with the percentage of renewable energy in electricity generation around 21% (similar to 22% in Greece). On the other hand, the consistent share of renewable energy in New Zealand’s electricity generation combines about 84% (less than France’s at 90%). Using this knowledge and estimates from a 2018 assessment, upstream emissions from electric cars (for a battery electric vehicle) in Australia can be estimated at approximately 170 g of CO2 by kilometres, while upward emissions in New Zealand are estimated at approximately 25 g of CO2 in line with km. on average. This shows that the use of an electric car in New Zealand is probably seven times higher in terms of car carbon emissions than in Australia.
Previous studies show that emissions in the use phase of a compact fossil fuel sedan were approximately 251 g of CO2 consistent with km. As a result, the phase emissions of such a car were approximately 81 g of CO2 consistent with up kilometres than those of an electric vehicle recharged on the grid in Australia, and much worse than the emissions of an electric car in New Zealand.
The key processes of the recycling phase are vehicle dismantling, vehicle recycling, battery recycling and curtain recovery. The estimated emissions at this stage, based on a study in China, are about 1.8 tons for a fossil fuel car and 2.4 tons for an electric car (including battery recycling). This difference is basically due to 0.7 tonne battery recycling emissions.
This shows that electric cars are to blame for more emissions than their gas counterparts in the recycling phase. But it should be noted that recycled parts of cars can be used in the manufacture of long-lasting cars, and that recycled batteries through direct cathode recycling can be used in later batteries. This can have significant benefits in long-term emission relief.
Thus, according to recent studies, fossil fuel cars sometimes emit more than electric cars at all stages of a life cycle. Overall life cycle emissions from a fossil fuel car and electric car in Australia were 333 g of CO2 consistent with km and 273 g of CO2 consistent with km, respectively. In other words, the network’s average electrical energy, EV, has 18% more effects in terms of the car’s carbon footprint.
Similarly, cars in New Zealand paint much more than fossil fuel cars in terms of emissions, with life-cycle emissions of approximately 333 g of CO2 consistent with km for fossil fuel cars and 128 g of CO2 consistent with car km. In New Zealand, cars are about 62% larger than fossil cars in terms of carbon footprint.
This article has been republished from The Conversation through Md Arif Hasan, PhD student, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington and Ralph Brougham Chapman, Associate Professor, Director of Environmental Studies, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington with a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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