Green Energy Revolution Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

Anyone know how recyclable rare earths are?

[crazy canuck]

Anyone know how recyclable rare earths are?

Anyone know how recyclable rare earths are?

Same as all metals

[Jacob]

Anyone know how recyclable rare earths are?

Same as all metals

I'd expect it's complicated a bit by the fact that rare earths are typically used in very small component parts, so the extraction for recycling is probably a pain.

... but I don't know.

[Valmy]

Anyone know how recyclable rare earths are?

Same as all metals

I'd expect it's complicated a bit by the fact that rare earths are typically used in very small component parts, so the extraction for recycling is probably a pain.

... but I don't know.

It is but fortunately that problem was solved a few years ago I believe. When there is that much money at stake, people tend to quickly find a way.

[crazy canuck]

Anyone know how recyclable rare earths are?

Same as all metals

I'd expect it's complicated a bit by the fact that rare earths are typically used in very small component parts, so the extraction for recycling is probably a pain.

... but I don't know.

Yes, that is the technical issue - not only is it in small quantities in a device, but they are also surrounded by hard plastics or other materials.

[Zanza]

A last picture from the protests around the open pit coal mine in Germany:

[Richard Hakluyt]

The rare earths chemically resemble each other so it can be quite difficult to separate them from each other. This is also the cause of their apparent rarity. They are all more common than silver, some of them hundreds of times more common, the rarest only seven times more common. The most common is about as third as abundant as copper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%27s_crust

Silver's atomic number is 47 the rare earths are 57-70.

I would therefore imagine that China's dominance is based on price but there are plenty of alternative sources that we could exploit if needed.

[Barrister]

Rare earth elements are not rare.  China dominated mining and processing because labor there is cheap, not because they have any sort of monopoly on the ore.  US production amounts to about 15% of the current global extraction, up sharply since the decision to subsidize production.  US processing remains much lower than extraction, but that, too, is changing.

It's fair for Sweden to have the largest deposit in Europe, since Swedes pretty much invented the industry.

Pet peeve of mine for a long time (as the owner of a BSc in Environmental Science/Geology) - we're not going to run out of any mineral, or hydrocarbon.  It's always a matter of how much do you want to pay to extract said mineral or hydrocarbon.  "Peak oil" (which is a term you don't hear much of any more) will be a thing at some point, but not because we run out of oil, but because we've traditioned to other energy sources.  But if you want to pay $1000/bbl we have a vast amount of hydrocarbons available.  Same for rare earth metals.

Grumbles, this is not meant to disagree with you - I'm agreeing with you and giving more detail.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

A last picture from the protests around the open pit coal mine in Germany:

I wonder if the greenies present at the protest are aware that the green hate towards nucleair is quite a big part of the reason Germany is coaling so heavily.

[Zanza]

The protest is rather hostile to the Green Party, but I guess those Greens present are aware.

A continuity between the protesters there and those that eventually led a conservative government to decide on phasing out nuclear energy is not a given. This group seems mainly concerned with climate change.

[Admiral Yi]

A last picture from the protests around the open pit coal mine in Germany:

Very Avatar-esque.

[Syt]

From 1979:

[garbon]

I like the attacks in brutalism.

[Tonitrus]

I am skeptical of the efficacy of the long-distance pumping of grain through underground pipes.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Rare earth elements are not rare.  China dominated mining and processing because labor there is cheap, not because they have any sort of monopoly on the ore.  US production amounts to about 15% of the current global extraction, up sharply since the decision to subsidize production.  US processing remains much lower than extraction, but that, too, is changing.

It's fair for Sweden to have the largest deposit in Europe, since Swedes pretty much invented the industry.

Pet peeve of mine for a long time (as the owner of a BSc in Environmental Science/Geology) - we're not going to run out of any mineral, or hydrocarbon.  It's always a matter of how much do you want to pay to extract said mineral or hydrocarbon.  "Peak oil" (which is a term you don't hear much of any more) will be a thing at some point, but not because we run out of oil, but because we've traditioned to other energy sources.  But if you want to pay $1000/bbl we have a vast amount of hydrocarbons available.  Same for rare earth metals.

Grumbles, this is not meant to disagree with you - I'm agreeing with you and giving more detail.

I can add that effectively all the free oxygen in the atmosphere is the result of photosynthesis by plants. As they do this they sequester carbon dioxide, sometimes for the long term if there are peat bogs etc etc.
I think, therefore, that if we ever succeeded in burning all the sequestered carbon there would be no oxygen left in the atmosphere. So peak fossil fuels never worried me even at its most fashionable; we would asphyxiate long before we ran out