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Fuel cell efficiency is worse than electrolysis efficiency, about 50%. Even the worst batteries beat that.


How many cycles do those batteries work with that efficiency? How environmentally friendly is mining Lithium in China and transporting it around the globe? How much CO₂ does the transport of those minerals/batteries produce? How do we get rid of old batteries? One huge advantage of producing hydrogen or methane out of thin air with excess energy from truly renewable energy sources is, that we don't have to procure and transport source materials, and that it can be stored.


Lithium in China? What does that matter?

Lithium comes from a lot of places. The largest Lithium exporter in the world today is Australia. Multiple South American countries are also towards the top of the list.

A lot of lithium "mining" is digging up desert salt deposits or skimming salt brines from salt lakes. Some of that still isn't "perfectly" environmentally friendly, but compared to extracting most any other sort of mineral it is one of the environmentally friendliest we extract.

Lithium is the third element on the periodic table and the third most common element in the universe. Admittedly a lot of the planet's Lithium is in compounds/salts that sometimes need to be chemically broken down and that has more environmental impacts than the mining processes. So there is that, admittedly. But a lot of it is electrolytic just like the "advantageous" hydrogen processes people seem to love.

Lithium is not a rare or heavy mineral. It's the next fatter cousin of Hydrogen.

> How do we get rid of old batteries?

Recycling. Plenty of companies have already answered this question. Lithium is highly reclaimable from all existing Lithium-based battery formulations.


Producing and distributing hydrogen requires significant infrastructure that releases vastly more CO2 than moving lithium around for EV’s. I think you got blinded by thinking of hydrogen as green but it doesn’t magically show up.

Also, moving lithium around releases negligible CO2, an EV battery only needs 15 pounds of lithium and lasts 25 years. You can work out the exact number based on specific origin and destinations but it’s on the order of driving an ICE 1 to 10 miles. Which shouldn’t be surprising because boats are very efficient, lithium is light, and cars weigh a lot.


How about cost and availability.




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