Lithium Can Be Extracted From Groundwater At Geothermal Installations (cleantechnica.com) 27
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CleanTechnica: Scientists at the KIT Energy Center at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology say there is enough lithium dissolved in the groundwater extracted by German geothermal heating and electricity installations to meet the needs of most if not all of the battery manufacturers in the country. "As far as we know, there can be up to 200 milligrams per liter," says geoscientist Dr. Jens Grimmer of the Institute of Applied Geosciences at KIT. "If we consistently use this potential, we could cover a considerable part of the demand in Germany." Dr. Florencia Saravia from the research unit of the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW) adds: "We export many environmental problems to third countries in order to maintain and improve our living standards. With this process, we can assume our responsibility and extract important raw materials for modern technologies in an environmentally friendly way right on our own doorstep. We can also build up regional value chains, create jobs, and reduce geopolitical dependencies at the same time."
Until now, there was no cost effective way to extract lithium from the groundwater geothermal facilities process to make heat or electricity. The Grimmer/Saravia process hopes to change that. "In a first step, the lithium ions are filtered out of the thermal water and in a second step, they are further concentrated until lithium can be precipitated as a salt," says Grimmer. The lithium precipitate is produced in only a few hours. KIT has applied for a patent based on the work of the two scientists. A pilot "proof of concept" program is taking place at one geothermal facility. If it proves successful, a larger commercial scale installation will follow. There are other commercial applications involved. The Grimmer/Saravia process can also capture other valuable elements such as rubidium or cesium from the thermal water, increasing the commercial importance of the discovery.
Until now, there was no cost effective way to extract lithium from the groundwater geothermal facilities process to make heat or electricity. The Grimmer/Saravia process hopes to change that. "In a first step, the lithium ions are filtered out of the thermal water and in a second step, they are further concentrated until lithium can be precipitated as a salt," says Grimmer. The lithium precipitate is produced in only a few hours. KIT has applied for a patent based on the work of the two scientists. A pilot "proof of concept" program is taking place at one geothermal facility. If it proves successful, a larger commercial scale installation will follow. There are other commercial applications involved. The Grimmer/Saravia process can also capture other valuable elements such as rubidium or cesium from the thermal water, increasing the commercial importance of the discovery.
Good for two reasons (Score:5, Interesting)
Lithium isn't realy the issue (Score:3, Interesting)
Supply of Cobalt is really the problem for batteries. Issues with Lithium supply have been over-hyped.
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There are several types of lithium batteries.
Some use no cobalt.
Cobalt production is currently limited not by available ore, but by political instability in the DRC.
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NMC (nickel maganese cobalt - LG Chem and Samsung) and NCA (nickel cobalt aluminum - Panasonic/Tesla) batteries use cobalt; LFP (lithium iron phosphate - Powin, CATL) do not. LFP is becoming the major type used in power installations and the NMC providers are not doing great (NEC) and Tesla has announced a move from NCA to LFP which is most likely to happen at power gen levels - NCA has benefits for ludicrous mode, but freq regulation doesn't need that much specific power. NMC is still pretty popular, tends
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About half of lithium production already comes from groundwater.
Brine mining - Lithium [wikipedia.org]
Re:Good for two reasons (Score:4, Informative)
Spodumene production is generic hard-rock mining, no associated acid mine pond risk, generally high ore concentrations (Greenbushes gets as high as 50% spodumene, with the mine as a whole around 4% lithium by mass) and usually little overburden. Look at Greenbushes [mining.com]. Not very big as far as mines go. Yet this one Australian mine produces about 30% of all the world's lithium.
Spodumene makes up a bit over half of current production; the rest is mostly salar lithium. Salar production is one of the most benign forms of "mining" on the planet - literally just drying brine in the sun. Seriously, the worst environmental citation that SQM has ever received was for was not reporting the death of 13 carob trees (they're an indicator species, one of the few trees that can grow on the edge of the salars, and producers are required to curtail their brine usage if levels drop below targets for any surrounding salt marshes - the salars themselves are among the deadest places on the planet, but peripheral salt marshes (only present in a limited number of productive salars) can house a variety of species). I don't know about you, but I'm prepared to accept the loss of a dozen carob trees. Meanwhile, here's what's going on in Nigeria [google.com]...
And the basic fact is that EVs simply don't use much lithium. People focus so heavily on it because of the name, but it's really a minor constituent of the net mass of a battery pack, or even of a cell. About 7kg or so in a long-range EV battery pack.
Lithium is not rare. It's not hard to come by. People focus way too much on obsolete notions, like "Salar de Uyuni has the world's largest lithium reserves". Not even close. There's 5,4M tonnes in that (expensive-to-produce) salar. By contrast, Piedmont's TSB project in North Carolina has 25 million tonnes. There's massive lithium reserves all over the place, and we keep finding more the more we explore. Not to mention the ultimate lithium reserve - economically justifiable at several times current lithium market rates (e.g. not too expensive for batteries, but at prices which nobody will use so long as cheaper lithium is available) - is the world's oceans. 180 billion tonnes of lithium in them.
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They can move it all underwater. Those deep sea geothermal vents that produce a lot of material dissolved in that extremely hot water. Use an insulated pipe to bring it up to a below water processing plant, using bouncy to keep it from sinking and chain to bottom of the sea to keep it deep enough to avoid wave turbulence. Use sea water at the level to cool it and as it cools the minerals will precipitate out and you can collect them. The heat and pressure maximise waters solvent affect and an insulated pipe
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So, what's the environmental effect of rerouting those geothermal vents?
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It is not news, though. Both Lithium and rare earth metal are present just about everywhere. They are not rare, but rather evenly distributed. What is rare is to find higher concentrations of them, so that it becomes economically feasible to mine the stuff.
Yes, you can mine it anywhere, but you can only economically mine it in a few places, and that is not in Germany. Partly because the concentration is so low, partly because labour cost is high, and partly because of environmental standards.
There's enough lithium (Score:1)
Is there enough ground water?
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You wind up having to put water back into the ground. They do this with primary treated sewage at The Geysers [wikipedia.org] in California. The result has been an increase in seismicity [wiley.com] which has done hundreds of millions of dollars in damage [pressdemocrat.com] even though The Geysers are located in bumfuck between Sonoma and Lake counties. Despite the region being literally the most geothermally active in the world, the power plant at The Geysers is perpetually over budget, and also under projected production of power.
This is only the barest beginning... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hot groundwater has long been known by geologists as a mineral transport mechanism. That's how humdrum limestone deposits in places like the UK have acquired mineable concentrations of tin, lead, tungsten and even silver.
But wait until dry coastal cities have to start desalinating their water supplies. Every metal that has ever been mined exists in seawater, and having to filter large quantities of it will make it more feasible to extract those metals. The uranium alone could supply more than the energy needed for the whole process.
I don't think desalination is a useful start. (Score:4, Insightful)
While there are lots of minerals in seawater, they aren't easy to extract. The waste from desal plants isn't dry powder from which to refine minerals - it is seawater with a bit more salt - between 4/3 and twice the mineal levels of the original seawater. When it comes to extracting minerals from seawater, starting with desal output wouldn't be much easier than starting with straight seawater.
The story might end up the other way - a sea mineral plant might produce drinking water as a byproduct - but it is more likely that such a plant will require additional fresh water for use in its processing. The main challenge will be the sodium chloride, and the breakthroughs will be processes that capture useful minerals from the water while allowing the salt to remain.
Related:Rare Earth Process Plant Opens in Colorado (Score:3)
Rare Earth Processing Plant Opens in Colorado. [nationalde...gazine.org]
The pilot plant is a joint venture between USA Rare Earth and Texas Mineral Resources Corp. The two companies previously funded a project on Round Top mountain in Hudspeth County, Texas, which features 16 of the 17 rare earth elements.
“Our objective is to set up a domestic U.S. supply chain without the materials ever leaving the United States,” said Pini Althaus, CEO of USA Rare Earth.
Mental illness (Score:2)
Great to know there's lithium in the ground water. Maybe people can drink that and be less bipolar. Or more. What are the side effects, electrification?
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And no, that depression is not connected to electoral outcomes or general conditions like social issues. All else equal, liberals are more likely to be depressed
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It used to be fashionable to vacation at resorts with lithium springs. Lithium spring water also used to be bottled, and sold as a beverage with health benefits. One of the resorts wiped out in the last spate of major fires in Lake county was Avalon Springs [arkintilt.com], formerly Howard Hot Springs, which was famous for its lithium spring. (Lake County used to be one of the hottest vacation spots in the country, and is now one of the most methed-out spots in the world.)
Re: Mental illness (Score:2)
ERRATA (Score:2)
Re: ERRATA (Score:2)
Re: ERRATA (Score:2)
Re: ERRATA (Score:2)
Good chemistry pun (Score:2)