EVs don’t need to be toxic

This story first appeared in the April issue of EVtalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Diesel vehicles – land, water and air – are on the way out because they emit poisons.

They include antimony, arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, cyanide, dioxin, lead, nickel, manganese, phosphorus, selenium and sulphur compounds and carcinogenic submicron particulates, organics and more.

The brew has a lot in common with the poisons inhaled from smoking tobacco.

However, the new electronics and electrics in and on vehicles appearing over the next 10 years will contain most of those poisons – and more.

Yes, most might be no threat for one reason or another. But much of them are questionable, particularly since alternatives exist or are emerging.

Indeed, a large number of devices per vehicle, each with minimal toxicant materials, could still add up to something damaging at some stage as EV sales grow rapidly – land, water and air.

The alternatives are mostly little-known and they are rarely a priority in funding for optimisation or adoption.

The new IDTechEx report Toxicant Materials and Alternatives in Electronics/ Electrics 2018-2028 reveals many safer alternatives and the research to produce them.

It also identifies where affordable alternatives with adequate electrical performance do not exist. There are gaps in the market, opportunities for someone and deserving of redirected research funding.

Although many of the forms of poison in new electronics and electrics are relatively safe because of their small volumes, encapsulation and other factors, the report concludes the rapid proliferation of poisons in a widening variety of applications requires better monitoring and control.
Specifically, one carcinogen associated with birth defects should have a date set for a global ban since alternatives are already successful in the marketplace in these devices in vehicles. A date is proposed.

So what else needs watching?

Though not always, antimony is used in some thermos-electrics and batteries, as a flame retardant and as dopant in microchips.

Arsenic is in planned gallium arsenide solar bodywork and is also a microchip dopant. See the IDTechEx report Energy Independent Electric Vehicles Land, Water, Air 2018-2028.

However, that toxic gallium arsenide will be at a level of only ten grams or less per car. One manufacturer says it is acceptable in landfill.

Nonetheless, care will be needed if millions of cars adopt it. Controlled disposal might be prudent by then – a date is proposed. A business opportunity exists for an equally efficient, equally flexible alternative; researchers are on the job.

Cadmium is in some quantum dot displays and researchers’ photovoltaics, and there’s cobalt in lithium-ion batteries, thermos-electrics and motor magnets.

Beryllium is in some vehicle parts. Dioxins are emitted by inappropriate burning of PVC; manganese is in lithium-ion batteries, electroluminescent displays and thermos-electrics.

Lead is in a whole panoply of existing and planned electronics and electrics such as the new perovskite photovoltaics, some quantum dot displays such as QLED television, sensors, piezoelectric transducers, actuators and energy harvesters.

The authors believe it is time for developed countries to set a date for banning lead acid batteries. They suggest what that date should be.

Many vehicles have abandoned lead acid batteries – from the Porsche Spyder hybrid to many pure electric vehicles and planned 48V mild hybrids. See the IDTechEx report Mild Hybrid 48V Vehicles 2017-2027.

Of the other poisons declining from the diesel collapse, nickel returns in motor magnets and lithium-ion batteries but is not a major threat.
Selenium appears in photovoltaics and sensors.

Sulphur compounds are found in sensors, electroluminescent displays, photodetectors, planned photovoltaics and QLEDs.

And those diesel nanoparticles associated with breast and lung cancer, asthma, heart disease, depression, uncontrolled coughing and so on? Well, something similar is used to make supercapacitor electrodes and many new forms of electronics, though mercifully not as inhalable powder under normal operating conditions. There could be a disposal problem.

This is only a sample of diesel poisons returning or back already. Most are a low threat at present – indeed QLEDs and thermos-electrics have yet to appear in a car near you, and quantum dots and microchip doping represent tiny volumes.

However, there is a prospect of some of the new poison-based devices selling in huge numbers. Think sensing, actuating and energy harvesting leading to up to 40 lead-based piezo-electrics per vehicle on one billion vehicles.

Many such as those piezo-electrics can be a threat if abused or on disposal but represent no problem in normal use. Other examples, including ones of concern when in use, are being announced all the time.

With some admirable exceptions, research laboratories and their funding typically chase performance before safety. That impedes the development of non-toxicant products.

Identifying and testing these new devices and electrical materials would be very demanding. Policing laws restricting their use or their toxicant content could become near impossible in some cases.

Toxicity reference works are mostly badly out of date, repeating nostalgia like the contents of a cathode ray tube.

It is unfortunate that lead acid batteries are being replaced by lithium-ion batteries with toxicant electrolytes and poisons of concern such as phosphorus, cobalt, manganese, nickel and carbon allotropes.

Indeed, putative replacements for lithium-ion often involve sulphur and other poisons, although solid-state electrolytes are likely to be non-toxicant and non-flammable.

Battery elimination is gaining attention, as discussed in the report, but without seriously impacting lithium-ion batteries for at least a decade. That elimination varies from vehicles that only move in daylight to buses and cars powered by supercapacitors, some of which are non-toxicant.
The new IDTechEx report Toxicant Materials and Alternatives in Electronics/ Electrics 2018-2028 even has a timeline for the planned introduction of “poisons of concern” into everyday life over the next 10 years.

However, it also has a note of optimism – it observes the huge effort to develop lead-free perovskite photovoltaics and some other alternatives for those worrisome poisons.

Priorities are recommended and a large number of alternative non-toxicant devices, in research or on sale, are identified.

Many alternatives to poisons in electronics and electrical engineering were to be presented at this month’s IDTechEx Show! in Berlin.