The Side of Electric Vehicles They Don’t Tell You

The development of Electric Vehicles is at the center of change in the transport industry across the world as the world shifts to sustainable energy solutions. However, a recent Princeton University study reveals a less-discussed challenge: There is a potential for pollution of SO2 in localized areas around manufacturing facilities refining critical minerals for automotive EV batteries.

The paper covered two countries- China and India, and this is due to their remarkable involvement in the production of EVs. But it also discovered that domesticating their supply chains for EV production could increase their countries’ national SO2 emission to as much as 20% above current levels. This increase is mainly attributed to the purification processes of nickel and cobalt, which are some raw materials needed for almost all current EV battery.

“Most discourse around EVs currently focuses on lowering emissions from the transportation and electricity industries,” pointed out Wei Peng an assistant professor at Princeton’s Andlinger Centre for Energy and the Environment. “But our study reveals that EV influences not only reach out to supply chain but also more so during production.”

A recent research carried out and published by Luo and Yang alsoed in Environmental Science & Technology, asserted that as countries shift their mobility to electric cars, there is the need to come up with clean supply chains and regulatory compliance to ensure manufacturer’s do not pollute the environment in the process.

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China and India had different problems related to SO2 emissions in the production of EV batteries. Chinese players already have a quite developed EV supply chain domestically but more attention should be paid to the rectification of the previous business activities. Still, the EV ecosystem is relatively new in India and the country has the chance to design cleaner ecosystems in this industry.

“It suggests that for China, the first priority should be to curb SO2 emissions from battery manufacturing, while for India the objectives should be to reduce the pollution from power sector first”, Peng added.

The emission of SO2 has been deemed to be dangerous to the public health as a precursor to fine particulate matter, which is associated with cardio pulmonary diseases. Fine particulate matter exposure has estimated to cause around 1.4 million deaths in 2019 in China and 1.7 million in India.

For India, immediate action could entail having to enforce Great Pollution preventing measures in Thermal power plants which looks at applying conventional technology such as flue-gas desulfurization. Meanwhile, Chinese power sector is well regulated so as to focus on enhancing the Nickel and Cobalt processes aimed at curbing emissions.

The study also show s that the problem is global and cuts across different societies. Sourcing the battery from other countries would be likely to end the SO2, emissions but comparison to other countries.

“What is needed is a global supply chain view,” said the study’s first author, Anjali Sharma, now an assistant professor at IIT Bombay. “When countries such as India decide it makes more sense to import batteries instead of producing them locally, the pollution is not eliminated, but pushed to a different location.”

In dealing with this, the researchers called for advanced pollution standards and new battery chemistries. The chart could be reduced by shifting from conventional chemistries like lithium nickel cobalt manganese and lithium iron phosphate that don’t use nickel and cobalt and impacts on SO2 emissions during manufacturing.

The study also reinforces the need for recognizing human effects in order to create proper decarbonization approaches. The environmental technologies like EVs can be great solutions towards reducing carbon emissions but their impacts on the various communities need to be well managed for social benefits.

“Although EVs are a step up in environmental friendly transport, their advancement has to factor in human friendly policies according to Peng.” “Clean technologies cannot afford to compromise between the environmental impacts and possible health effects in order to reap the most benefits.”

The research is funded by the Wellcome Trust Climate Change and Health Award while studying under the School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University and is an important note that the journey to a sustainable future is not always what it seems. Since new car makers in countries like China and India are already struggling with large-scale production of EVs, only visionary approaches will help to integrate the fight against pollution into technological development;

Through controlling supply chain emissions, increasing pollution control norms, and considering various types of battery chemistries, the nations can move towards the enhancement of the EV revolution without causing health and environmental degradation.