Energy and Environmental Technology: topic
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European Geosciences Union General Assembly
Maria Bostenaru Dan
Monday, 07 May 2007 11:24 UTC
The European Geosciences Union has a division on “Energy, Resources and the Environment” and the possibility to propose scientific sessions for the General Assembly – I think the next round of proposals will start this month.
It is mainly directed to geoscientists.
I had a session last year on “urban mineralogy” and a proposal for this year on “the role of geosciences on preserving the ressource architecture”. Although the session last year was successful, this year we’ve got no abstract submission. What do you suggest to change for the coming year to be more popular?
thanks
Maria
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Replies
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Perhaps one could suggest a focus on the connections between the source materials for a given energy technology, and the availability of that resource on the global market (per an economic geology assessment). In addition, one could talk about issues of recycling and processing of materials as geologically significant in a global economy.
For example, lithium ion battery technology currently depends on cobalt ore. While cobalt is not scarce, it is relegated to localized ore bodies in politically challenged countries, and by rough estimates there is simply not enough cobalt in the crust to make a global economy of lithium-cobalt car batteries for hybrid/electric vehicles that industry dreams of. Researchers are looking for new materials, but I do not believe industry has been as well informed of the limitations of cobalt as an environmental resource.
Consider the vast amount of copper related to heat exchange equipment and electrical wiring. Even if we can recycle copper, how far can we stretch the material across its myriad technologies before we have exceeded our usable limit of refined stock?
As we move to larger, global economies, and as we attempt to decentralize our power consumption from fossil fuels alone, we will need to address reservoir management for all materials. I think there would be lots of issues to discuss at this session under an umbrella of materials reservoir management for developing energy technologies.
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