---
title: "Ingenious Gadget Could Harvest Battery Material From the Ocean"
description: "As cobalt mines run low, scientists think they could start harvesting it from the ocean. They have a plan to get enough for over 500,000 Tesla batteries."
date: "2019-05-03"
modified: "2019-05-03"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/cobalt-ocean-tesla-batteries"
categories:
  - "Advanced Transport"
tags:
  - "energy"
  - "tesla"
  - "the digest"
  - "transport"
---

# Ingenious Gadget Could Harvest Battery Material From the Ocean

![As cobalt mines run low, scientists think they could start harvesting it from the ocean. They have a plan to get enough for over 500,000 Tesla batteries.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cobalt-ocean-tesla-batteries.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## New Source

These days, most batteries for electric vehicles are based on cobalt — a dwindling element sourced from mines that often employ [child labor](<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cobalt-supply-ahome/cobalt-the-heart-of-darkness-in-the-shiny-electric-vehicle-story-andy-home-idUSKBN1DS316>) and other [unethical practices](<https://futurism.com/electric-vehicles-future-batteries-past>).

Now, a team of MIT engineers say they've found an alternative, [according to *New Scientist*](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2201637-cobalt-for-500000-electric-cars-could-be-harvested-from-the-oceans/>): using a beach ball-like apparatus hanging from abandoned oceanic oil rigs, it may be possible to absorb enough cobalt to build hundreds of thousands of batteries for Teslas or other electric cars.

## Just In Time

The team's [research](<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032119300838?via%3Dihub>), which was published in the journal *Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews*, describes how the world may face a cobalt shortage as soon as the early 2020s — a logistical problem that could weigh down the emerging electric vehicle movement.

But there's 70 times more cobalt in the ocean than there is on land — and just 76 Gulf of Mexico oil rigs outfitted with cobalt-absorbing devices could absorb enough to make up a quarter of the cobalt used in battery manufacturing in 2017, per the study.

## Preliminary Reports

The new technique, while scientifically sound, is still too expensive to be worthwhile at scale, *New Scientist* reports.

But it may be possible to drive down costs by making the cobalt-absorbing orbs out of recycled plastic and other waste, which could make the prospect financially viable.

**READ MORE:** [Cobalt for 500,000 electric cars could be harvested from the oceans](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2201637-cobalt-for-500000-electric-cars-could-be-harvested-from-the-oceans/>) \[*New Scientist*\]

**More on electric vehicles:** *[A New Battery Could Store Ten Times the Power as Lithium-Ion](<https://futurism.com/new-battery-ten-times-power>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)