How will fuel cells from current hybrid cars be disposed of when they are exhausted?
By Cars & Motorcycles on Feb 26, 2009 with Comments 3
astrocatastrophe asked: Is the environmental impact of making and disposing of these fuel cells a good trade-off for the extra gas mileage and lower emissions? Probably yes, but I cannot find any reliable info on this.
Filed Under: Hybrid Cars
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current Nicad technology allows for element cleaning and recycling. I’m not sure what will happen when the switch is made to Li-ion (and it will) they are more efficient size for size.
You can search Road and track online.. they had an article not too long ago.
I believe that the recycling of fuel cells for hybrid cars will be much like how we recycle our current car batteries. Both batteries and fuel cells contain reactive chemicals so technology still has room for improvement as far as developing cleaner alternate fuels and power sources…
Hybrids use NiMH batteries, which can be fully recycled. Toyota will actually pay $200 per battery to ensure that they are properly recycled.
That said, batteries are designed to last the life of the vehicle (or between 150,000-200,000 miles) and most are covered under warranties between 8 and 10 years.
Considering a hybrid releases less greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (about 2 tons each, annually!) and they use less fossil fuels, they are far better for the environment than conventioanl cars.