From Chemistry to Geopolitics, The Material Basis of Energy Innovation

“ Mixed with mercury, it forms an amalgam that takes the place of zinc in Bunsen cells. The mercury is never depleted. Only the sodium is consumed, and the sea itself gives me that. Beyond this, I'll mention that sodium batteries have been found to generate the greater energy, and their electro–motor strength is twice that of zinc batteries. ”

“ Lithium is the metallic base of the Alkali lithia. The metal is of a white, silvery appearance, and is much harder than sodium or potassium, but softer than lead. It is the lightest of all known solids, its specific gravity being little more than half that of water. It comes principally from South Dakota, California and Sweden.
In chemical laboratories it is converted into lithium carbonate for medicinal tablets and mineral waters.
Magnesium is a metal widely distributed over the globe, and chiefly mined in Austria, Germany and Greece. ”

“ The question that naturally comes up is, can the ordinary battery man make good lead castings? We will answer “Yes,” very emphatically. There is nothing mysterious about the work and all the talk of alloys, compounds and formulae does not mean a great deal.
Pure lead is not hard or rigid enough to make good battery parts, therefore, it is necessary to add some other metal that will provide the strength, not be affected by the acid and not increase the resistance electrically. Antimony has all the necessary qualities, and is, therefore, commonly used by mixing it with the pure lead. ”

“ The advantages to be gained by employing a local battery at each subscriber's station associated with the transmitter in the primary circuit of an induction coil are attended by certain disadvantages from a commercial standpoint. The primary battery is not an economical way to generate electric energy. In all its commercial forms it involves the consumption of zinc and zinc is an expensive fuel. The actual amount of current in watts required by a telephone is small, however, and this disadvantage due to the inexpensive method of generating current would not in itself be of great importance. ”

“ Each device may present its own unique power demands. Thus, a polymer cell from one model’s phone may not necessarily work in another model even if they are the same size. Second, lithium ion cells need to be handled carefully in order to avoid a thermal runaway event that could lead to a chemical fire. [92]
Third, for common household batteries, the size and shape of the battery—its form factor—indicates that it can be used in a device that accepts a battery of that particular size and shape. ”

“ The spongy lead of the negatives swells and bulges out and makes very poor contact with the grids as a battery becomes discharged. This results in a loss of capacity, gradual sulphation of the loose active material, corrosion of the grids, failure of the gravity to rise high enough on charge, overheating of the battery on charge, gassing before the sulphate is reduced to active material with breaking off and roughening of the active material, and makes the battery lazy and sluggish in action. ”

“ Opposed to this is the fact that at high temperatures, the acid attacks the grids and active materials, and lead sulphate is formed, even though no current is taken from the battery. Other injurious effects are the destructive actions of hot acid on the wooden separators used in most starting and lighting batteries. Greater expansion of active material will also occur, and this expansion is not, in general, uniform over the surface of the plates. ”

“ Such storage batteries are in common use in connection with electric automobiles, as we have seen. But the great difficulty is that they are enormously heavy in proportion to the amount of electricity that they can generate; therefore, their transportation is difficult and expensive. In practice it is cheaper to produce electricity through the operation of a steam engine in a distant city than to transmit the electricity with the aid of a storage battery from Niagara. So the storage battery served as little as compressed air to solve the engineer's problem. ”

“ And I ask this Congress to help create a network of fifteen of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.
If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas. Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy. Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s; developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries ten times more powerful. Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. ”

“ But the stores are being more and more exhausted; the labor is getting dearer and dearer, and the demand is continuously increasing. It must be clear to every one that soon some new source of power supply must be opened up, or that at least the present methods must be materially improved. A great deal is expected from a more economical utilization of the stored energy of the carbon in a battery ”

“ And what is true of the human riches of the world is no less true of the physical resources. The mines, forests, and wheat-fields of the world are all being exploited at a rate which must practically exhaust them at no distant date. On the side of material production, the world is living too fast; in a kind of delirium, almost all the energy of the world has rushed into the immediate production of something, no matter what, and no matter at what cost. And yet our present system is defended on the ground that it safeguards progress! ”

“ Our power, our forest cut, the use of our iron and other minerals, our coal and petroleum, the railroad earnings, freight and passenger traffic, and our agricultural products all double themselves every ten years. This means that in ten years we shall require twice as much power as now, but will have far less coal to use. This raises the question,—have we available water-power to conserve our coal supply? ”

“ Not when we use more than 20 percent of the world’s oil, but still only have 2 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. If we don’t develop other sources of energy, and the technology to use less energy, we’ll continue to be dependent on foreign countries for our energy needs. That’s why we’re pursuing an all-of-the-above strategy. As we develop more oil and gas, we’re also developing wind and solar power ”

“ The price of coal is constantly rising, and the poor are made to suffer more and more. Though we are still far from the dreaded "exhaustion of the coal-fields," philanthropy commands us to invent novel methods of manufacturing iron, which will not involve such barbarous waste of this valuable material from which we derive at present most of our energy. ”

“ The result today — the result is that today only 35 percent — only 35 percent — of the crude oil used in U.S. refineries comes from here at home; 65 percent comes from foreign countries, like Saudi Arabia and Mexico and Canada and Venezuela. You see, we're growing more dependent on foreign oil. Because we haven't had an energy strategy, we're becoming more dependent on countries outside our borders to provide us with the energy needed to refine gasoline. To compound the problem, countries with rapidly growing economies, like India and China, are competing for more of the world oil supply. ”

“ After all, today we get about 60 percent of our oil from foreign countries. That's up from 20 years ago where we got oil from — about 25 percent of our oil came from foreign countries. Now, part of the problem is, is that some of the nations we rely on for oil have unstable governments, or agendas that are hostile to the United States. These countries know we need their oil, and that reduces our influence, our ability to keep the peace in some areas. And so energy supply is a matter of national security. ”

“ So, year after year, our dependence on foreign oil grew. Families have been held hostage to spikes in gas prices. Good manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. And we’ve seen companies produce new energy technologies and high-skilled jobs not in America, but in countries like China, India and Germany. ”

“ The Limits to Growth states: "...within a time span of less than 100 years with no major change in the physical, economic, or social relationships that have traditionally governed world development, society will run out of the nonrenewable resources on which the industrial base depends. ”

“ However, over the years we have underinvested in production—hurting our innovative edge—while other countries have learned from our example and increased their investments in the industry. Large capacity batteries, such as those used in electric vehicles: As we take action to tackle the climate crisis, we know that will lead to large demand for new energy technologies like electric vehicle batteries. ”

“ As you know, a key part of the President’s Build Back Better plan includes a significant increase in the number of electric vehicles and batteries built here in America. We need a strong, diversified, and resilient U.S.-based electric vehicle battery supply chain so we can meet the growing global demand for these vehicles and components. ”

“ Producers of electrical and electronic products, lead-based batteries, electric vehicle batteries, and the like shall, in compliance with relevant regulations, establish a waste products recovery system that matches the sales volume of their products, either by means of construction by themselves or through commission, and disclose information about this system to the public, so as to achieve effective recycling and utilization of wastes. ”

“ As to the energy supply in small isolated places as dwellings, I have placed my confidence in the development of a light storage battery, involving the use of chemicals manufactured by cheap water power, such as some carbide or oxygen-hydrogen cell.
But we shall not satisfy ourselves simply with improving steam and explosive engines or inventing new batteries; we have something much better to work for, a greater task to fulfill. ”

“ What’s true for natural gas is true for clean energy. In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world’s leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries. ”

“ In the past, this mix has been allowed to flow together haphazardly, the proportions dictated by short-term pressures on and short-term goals of governments, institutions, and companies. Energy is too important for its development to continue in such a random manner. A safe, environmentally sound, and economically viable energy pathway that will sustain human progress into the distant future is clearly imperative. ”

“ That means leading the world in building a new clean energy economy with the potential to unleash a wave of innovation – and economic growth – while ending our dependence on foreign oil. And that means investing in the research and development that will produce the technologies of the future – which in turn will help create the industries and jobs of the future.
Innovation has been essential to our prosperity in the past, and it will be essential to our prosperity in the future. ”

“ More importantly, it will buy the time needed to mount major programmes on sustainable forms of renewable energy and so begin the transition to a safer, more sustainable energy era. The development of renewable sources will depend in part on a rational approach to energy pricing to secure a stable matrix for such progress. Both the routine practice of efficient energy use and the development of renewables will help take pressure off traditional fuels, which are most needed to enable developing countries to realize their growth potential worldwide. ”

“ Although worldwide reliance on all these sources has been growing by more than 10 per cent a year since the late 1970s, it will be some time before they make up a substantial portion of the world's energy budget. Renewable energy systems are still in a relatively primitive stage of development. But they offer the world potentially huge primary energy sources, sustainable in perpetuity and available in one form or another to every nation on Earth. But it will require a subsantial and sustained commitment to further research and development if their potential is to be realized. ”

“ And so, to me, the fact that there is out there, globally, a $23 trillion market for clean energy products, for products that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is a massive opportunity for this country. And you better believe that other countries are seeing that opportunity as well, and our economic competitors are working to corner the market on those opportunities. Countries like China are pressing their foot on the pedal and revving up their electric engines, and they are thrilled to see that the United States is standing still while they are working to create jobs for their people. ”

“ Industry has ceased to be essentially an empirical, rule-of-thumb procedure, handed down by custom. Its technique is now technological: that is to say, based upon machinery resulting from discoveries in mathematics, physics, chemistry, bacteriology, etc. The economic revolution has stimulated science by setting problems for solution, by producing greater intellectual respect for mechanical appliances. And industry received back payment from science with compound interest. ”