Batteries in Our Christmas Stockings…
Batteries in Our Future… Stocking Stuffers When I was a single mom, raising my kids, I used to love to put fun things in their stockings. Candy, candy dispensers, small toys, gag gifts, etc, and I would always include a bundle of batteries. Back then, there were so many things that could use AAs that it made functional sense. I would imagine that is still somewhat the same today. My daughter, even as an adult, still enjoys filling the stockings for loved ones, and she will include batteries. Nostalgia is such a fun part of the holidays. Technological Mismatch… But for all the fun that batteries can provide, there is a small amount of irony in our technological society that has smart phones, smart homes and smart cars. With all the technological advances that we have had made in the last few decades, using the simple comparison of computers that would fill a room to computers that fit into the palm of your hand… Or smaller! The advances in storing energy have changed very little from their historical beginnings and may prove to be our “Achilles heel” in some of the more innovative green power advancements down the road. History of Batteries To begin with, battery “construction” has not changed much. “A battery is essentially a device that stores chemical energy that is converted into electricity. Basically, batteries are small chemical reactors, with the reaction producing energetic electrons, ready to flow through the external device.” Depending on who you read, the history of batteries varies a little as to who lead the way on the actual creation of a battery… The ancient Baghdad Battery from approximately 2500 years ago, the Leyden Jar of 1744, or the Voltaic Pile in 1800 which was the first “wet cell” battery. Regardless of who made the first “official” battery, Benjamin Franklin is given the credit for naming them “batteries” in 1749. Interesting Anachronisms For all our advancements in technology, it is interesting to note that modern day combustion engines are still being started with the basic rechargeable battery that was created back in 1859. I could carry this use of anachronisms further by mentioning that our electrical power system is basically unchanged from the early 1880’s. I love their creative use of space in their logo! Yep. We are still using a system that is about 140 years old for our homes and cars. Strange to think that my grandmother, who was born in the1890’s, would have seen the advent of “modern electricity” and it’s expansion across the nation… And yet for all of our technological advancements? We’re still working with an archaic power system based off the 1880’s. We’ve put men on the moon and satellites into deep space, yet our electricity is still being delivered on systems that are old, so old that if not maintained there can be dire consequences. California wildfires come to mind. While this line of thought is both entertaining and disconcerting, I will keep my focus on batteries and their potential limitations. Battery Construction Batteries have needed the same basic materials since their inception: two different metals, to make electrodes, within an electrolyte. The materials used have varied over time, but the basics are still the same. The lead-acid battery of your car is literally lead, lead oxide, sulfuric acid, powdered sulfate and water. A dry cell battery, like your AAs and AAAs, are made of zinc, carbon, a cardboard divide and a jelly paste of aluminum chloride or manganese dioxide. The common dry cell battery is referred to as a Primary or single use battery because you can only get one use out of them. “This is because the battery actually destroys itself over a discharge—either depleting electrodes as they discharge, or building up reaction products on the electrodes preventing the reaction from continuing. Once this happens, the battery ends up in the bin.” With the advent of cell phones in the early 1980’s, batteries needed to be able to last longer and to recharge for ease of use and reliability. To recharge a battery, all that is needed is the appropriate choice of electrode materials, thereby allowing the reversal of the chemical reaction that occurs during discharge. Common electrode materials used in rechargeable batteries are Nickel, Lithium, Silver, and Zinc. How Many Batteries?!? With all this talk of batteries, exactly how many do we buy here in America, in one year? It was not surprising to find out, based off the number of battery displays throughout local stores… that we Americans buy over 3 billion dry cell batteries alone each year. Gracious! Where are we getting the materials to make all these batteries? Where Do Battery Parts Come From? Batteries are made from metals, as well as other materials, due to the fact that metals can conduct electricity. To obtain the needed metals for any battery, the metals must be extracted from their source… The earth’s crust. “The metal we use to make buildings, computers, cars and trucks, and many other products (like batteries) come from underground deposits of mineral ores containing high metal concentrations. The first step in metal alloy manufacturing is extracting the raw ore from the ground.” Mining But the mining process to extract these needed metals, or any metal that we use on a daily basis, is a large scale, wasteful process that has environmental repercussions. A catch-22 for our technologically dependent society. For a better understanding of mining practices and potential repercussions, here are a few of the different techniques used to mine metals. Surface Mining Techniques: Surface mining is a method of mining that involves removing the soil and the overlying rock on top of the mineral deposit. Strip Mining for surface ore, commonly used for coal and lignite. Open Pit mining, creating a large pit or burrow. Mountain Top Removal, for coal seams under mountains. Dredging, suctioning up material from the bottom of oceans, lakes and rivers. Panning for gold is the small scale version of this
