These eco-innovations are set to make EVs greener - CNBCTV18

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Here's how some of the smartest brains in the world are discovering ways to reduce the mostly hidden environmental -- and human -- cost of lithium-ion batteries that are at the heart of EVs.

Even as electric vehicles (EVs) are touted as the future of mobility and a more sustainable tomorrow, their contribution to the environment is clouded with question marks over their manufacturing and disposal. Electric vehicles do not have exhausts pumping out emissions, but they use rare earth elements such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, which are extracted from the ground with very polluting processes.

Apart from the environmental costs, they are also linked to human rights violations in African countries where cobalt is mined for use in batteries that power electric vehicles. A concerted effort is on to ensure that the electric vehicle revolution is actually green.

Also read: How battery swapping technology can make electric cars affordable

Here’s a list of eco-innovations, as listed by The Guardian.

Eco-innovations around the world

To mine lithium used in EV batteries from land deposits or subterranean aquifers, vast amounts of groundwater is pumped out in large pools and evaporated. Eramet, a French metal company, is testing a process based on ‘nanofiltration,’ that will filter the water and return it to the aquifer. Eramet has invested a capital of 200 million euros in the project.

UK-based startup Aceleron is using the compression method to reduce the need to bond...

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