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One of the few advantages of EVs over ICE vehicles is the very much lower routine maintenance costs. Even the brake pads need less frequent replacement thanks to the regenerative braking function. OTOH-- an ICE can be used for several 100,000 miles without major repairs if given proper maintenance, while those very expensive battery packs may need replacement every few yrs if you run them down too often&/or charge them too quickly too often...
...which brings us to a major problem with disposal of EV battery packs-- toxic metals that are not recyclable at a cost effective level.
EV battery packs are now expected to last between 300,000 to 500,000 miles, also most EV batteries can be recycled
One of the few advantages of EVs over ICE vehicles is the very much lower routine maintenance costs. Even the brake pads need less frequent replacement thanks to the regenerative braking function. OTOH-- an ICE can be used for several 100,000 miles without major repairs if given proper maintenance, while those very expensive battery packs may need replacement every few yrs if you run them down too often&/or charge them too quickly too often...
...which brings us to a major problem with disposal of EV battery packs-- toxic metals that are not recyclable at a cost effective level.
Most automotive engineers think the optimum way to go is with hybrids-- electric asstst of an ICE to give gas mileage in the 50mpg range, and avoiding the several drawbacks (weight, toxic pollution, long charge times &nasty fires) of big batteries.....Of course, the GM Geo was an ICE vehicle that got 50mpg 40 yrs ago, but the EPA put them out of business in the name of "saving the environment." Pretty stupid.
I've seen ICE vehicles catch fire, including mine, and I watched a parked (no one in it) hybrid burst into flames. All cars can burn up.
A) Tesla now has the longest battery warantee for only 150,000 miles. Others are only 100,000 miles. Tesla claims theirs will last 500,000. I'll believe it when they start waranteeing them for that.
2) The vast number of ICE fires are minor oil leak fires under the hood which burn themselves out quickly. The fuel/tank is rarely involved...Forty y/a there was a famous lawsuit when a Ford Pinto burst into flames after a fear end collision. The DOT crash experts used five Pintos and could not, despite vigorous experimentation, get any of them to burn in a collision. (That didn't deter the court from awarding damages to the plaintiff. Science apparently means little when lawyers are chasing ambulances. But I digress.)...
Organic materials require oxygen to supply electrons when they oxidize (burn), but the Li in the batteries supply their own so they can't be extinguished by smothering them with water or foam, etc. They have to use up all their stored energy (electrons) to be quenched. That's the energy that moves you 400 miles on a single charge....
Many insurance companies wll no longer insure your house if you park an EV in an attached garage.
I just finished reading a book on the Love Canal, that toxic waste dump created by Hooker Chemical in the 50's, 60's, and the book also stated there were, before the EPA, 28,000 toxic waste dumps scattered across the country. But the book didn't tell me, when they do a clean up of all those dangerous drums of dangerous chemicals, where does that waste end up? In a more remote area, far away from people? What to do with a 5 gallon drum of Dioxin, the most dangerous chemical you could image?
I looked at all the categories to place this post and I didn't know where else to put it. If the Moderator can find a better place for it, please be so kind.
Dioxin is easy to neutralize. It takes time and is usually done with horse manure and water. Really. Completely neutralizes it.
You state that as if the manure and water provide some special chemical reaction, but dioxan adheres to dirt particles in general. It does not wash out to waterways or ground water to any great extent. It is not absorbed by plant roots, but only by leaves and stems. It interferes with a certain enzyme involved in amino acid synthesis found only in green plants so animals, bacteria and fungi are not affected. In the soil it is metabolized to byproducts at a half life of only about two days, so within about a week there is no "pure" dioxan left in the soil....The byproducts have much longer half lives of degradation and may or may not be .active, but since they aren't absorbed by roots, it makes no difference in the real world.
As mentioned earlier, the medical complications of dioxan exposure are greatly exaggerated. A study of10s of 1000s of GIs (JAMA '81?) showed that guys exposed in Nam had no dif in medical outcomes than guys stationed elsewhere (and their kids had fewer med problems)....but regardless of the science, what Congressman is going to vote against compensation funds for Vets?
Dioxan is safer than it's alternatives and disposal isn't a problem.
This is why I am against Nuclear power plants. The spent fuel rods, which if memory serves me correctly are replaced once a year, are highly radioactive and are simply buried. Why do we attempt to solve one problem while creating another? Technology will one day reduce emissions next to nothing and will be far less harmful to the environment then burying radioactive waste.
Re: nuclear waste-- in the nearly 80 year history, there has been only ONE incident of leakage. A barrel was pierced by a fork lift. The leakage was minor and quickly remedied. No damage done (Look it up.).....The stuff came out of the ground, so now we return it there. One gets more exposure to radiation by spending an hour in the sun or waiting for a minute or two for an elevator in a lobby with granite walls than from a CT scan. It s not the problem Japanese monster movie writers and other journalists would have us believe.
You state that as if the manure and water provide some special chemical reaction, but dioxan adheres to dirt particles in general. It does not wash out to waterways or ground water to any great extent. It is not absorbed by plant roots, but only by leaves and stems. It interferes with a certain enzyme involved in amino acid synthesis found only in green plants so animals, bacteria and fungi are not affected. In the soil it is metabolized to byproducts at a half life of only about two days, so within about a week there is no "pure" dioxan left in the soil....The byproducts have much longer half lives of degradation and may or may not be .active, but since they aren't absorbed by roots, it makes no difference in the real world.
As mentioned earlier, the medical complications of dioxan exposure are greatly exaggerated. A study of10s of 1000s of GIs (JAMA '81?) showed that guys exposed in Nam had no dif in medical outcomes than guys stationed elsewhere (and their kids had fewer med problems)....but regardless of the science, what Congressman is going to vote against compensation funds for Vets?
Dioxan is safer than it's alternatives and disposal isn't a problem.
Whoops. I gotta quit multi-tssking. Correction: the stuff I said about mechanism of action and fate in the environment is for glyphosate (RoundUp).....Dioxin (Agent Orange/2,4- D) has multiple sites of action in cells, mostly related to lipid metabolism, including estrogen-like effects. It's degraded very slowly in the absence of light (like in the soil) and it is absorbed by roots....The saving grace is that it diffuses rapidly thru the soil and it's concentration goes down rapidly over time & distance to achieve levels too low to worry about. (Eg- ever use 2,4-D on weeds in your sidewalk? How long before you gotta do it again?)
Reports of developmental effects in humans are largely anecdotal, and carcinogenic effects have only been shown in animal studies after loading with impractically large exposures https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...oxics-10-00278
Disposal of dioxin is best accomplished via heat treatment/Incineration.
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