Even more problematic, sulfuric acid in prodigious quantities is required to leach lithium from the clay stone. Hundreds of tons of sulfur waste from oil refineries (roughly 75 semi-truck loads) will be trucked to Thacker Pass and burned every day.
The Dirty Business of Making Clean Energy
– By Howard Sierer –
The Dirty Business of Making Clean EnergyLithium can’t be grown on sustainable, organic farms. Nor can cobalt, gallium, or nickel. Each of these minerals is needed in large quantities to produce electric vehicle (EV) batteries, solar panels and wind turbines for what is termed clean energy.
The ores containing them must be dug out of the ground, hauled by truck to processing plants, and refined – usually at very high temperatures – to produce the finished metal. And there’s the rub.
Getting them out of the ground requires equipment – very big equipment…
The Dirty Business of Making Clean Energy – The Independent
