Arkansas May Have Vast Lithium Reserves, Researchers Say (nytimes.com) 29
Researchers at the United States Geological Survey and the Arkansas government announced on Monday that they had found a trove of lithium, a critical raw material for electric vehicle batteries, in an underground brine reservoir in Arkansas. From a report: With the help of water testing and machine learning, the researchers determined that there might be five million to 19 million tons of lithium -- more than enough to meet all of the world's demand for the metal -- in a geological area known as the Smackover Formation. Several companies, including Exxon Mobil, are developing projects in Arkansas to produce lithium, which is dissolved in underground brine.
Energy and mining companies have long produced oil, gas and other natural resources in the Smackover, which extends from Texas to Florida. And the federal and state researchers said lithium could be extracted from the waste stream of the brines from which companies extracted other forms of energy and elements. The energy industry, with the Biden administration's encouragement, has been increasingly working to produce the raw materials needed for the lithium-ion batteries in the United States. A few projects have started recently, and many more are in various stages of study and development across the country.
Most of the world's lithium is produced in Australia and South America. A large majority of it is then processed in China, which also dominates the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries. "The potential for increased U.S. production to replace imports has implications for employment, manufacturing and supply chain resilience," David Applegate, the director of the United States Geological Survey, said in a statement announcing the study. "This study illustrates the value of science in addressing economically important issues."
Energy and mining companies have long produced oil, gas and other natural resources in the Smackover, which extends from Texas to Florida. And the federal and state researchers said lithium could be extracted from the waste stream of the brines from which companies extracted other forms of energy and elements. The energy industry, with the Biden administration's encouragement, has been increasingly working to produce the raw materials needed for the lithium-ion batteries in the United States. A few projects have started recently, and many more are in various stages of study and development across the country.
Most of the world's lithium is produced in Australia and South America. A large majority of it is then processed in China, which also dominates the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries. "The potential for increased U.S. production to replace imports has implications for employment, manufacturing and supply chain resilience," David Applegate, the director of the United States Geological Survey, said in a statement announcing the study. "This study illustrates the value of science in addressing economically important issues."
LOOK OUT ARKANSAS! (Score:1, Funny)
Is it economical? (Score:4, Informative)
Problem with brines is that to get lithium out of them, you must evaporate a lot of water. A LOT of water. That means a lot of energy.
South America solves this problem through solar power. Specifically direct solar heating of massive pools of brine in a very dry desert region, where Sun evaporates water from the brine.
AK is not that, so they'll either have to have mass transportation of the stuff to a hot desert, or evaporate it through some other industrial means. So it's unlikely to be competitive with South American brines.
Re:Is it economical? (Score:5, Informative)
Problem with brines is that to get lithium out of them, you must evaporate a lot of water.
Nope. There is no need to evaporate the water.
Just dump sodium carbonate into the brine. It will dissolve and disassociate into ions. The -CO3 ion will then react with the lithium ions. Lithium carbonate is insoluble in water and will precipitate out.
Lithium carbonate is a commodity product that can be sold directly to battery manufacturers.
Re: (Score:3)
Why do South Americans evaporate instead of doing this?
Re:Is it economical? (Score:4, Informative)
The process is more efficient if the brine is concentrated.
So, if you've got plenty of sunshine, why not use it?
You can also concentrate the brine with osmotic membranes instead of evaporation.
Re: (Score:2)
How much more efficient? If this is uncompetitive with evaporation, is this so inefficient as to make it uncompetitive even with mining?
Re: (Score:3)
If this is uncompetitive with evaporation, is this so inefficient as to make it uncompetitive even with mining?
Lithium from hard rock mining has historically been cheaper, but new techniques, such as selective osmotic membranes, are making brine more cost-effective.
Other products from brine can be co-produced, such as magnesium, potassium, rubidium, gallium, bromine, iodine, etc.
There may also be revenue from sequestration. After all the good stuff is extracted, you need to dispose of the brine. There are two options:
1. Dump it into the Mississippi River
2. Pump it back down the hole
The greenies will object to #1, so
Re: (Score:2)
AK is not that, so they'll either have to have mass transportation of the stuff to a hot desert, or evaporate it through some other industrial means. So it's unlikely to be competitive with South American brines.
Oklahoma receives an average of 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, making it one of the sunniest states in the United States.......
They share a border... The panhandle gets the bulk of the sunshine... If only we had technology like pipelines...
West Texas also has vast areas of arid land not being used for much of anything.. I can totally see how it'd be cheaper to ship that shit all the way from South America versus a pipeline..
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
>"Should go to Trump to calm him down. Maybe he will stop talking about pointing military guns at US citizens."
TDS is so rampant here.
Which party wants to weaponize the military against citizens?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portal... [whs.mil]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The Trump party. This is not the same as the GOP party, which is full of RINOs. Trump party is about whatever Trump is for, and they're against whatever Trump is against, and don't bother writing any of it down because he won't remember from day to day what he said and will deny it anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
What was the message to them? "Peacefully and Patriotically"
How many guns were found on protestors? Zero.
How many officers were killed? Zero.
What was the actual impact on proceedings? Delayed a few hours.
TDS....
Re: (Score:2)
Aren't you glad you are an Anonymous Coward? Then you won't have to face the embarrassment of labeling a factual post a "stupid response" when your own response is beyond stupid.
I will await your evidence of attempted murders. There was not a SINGLE charge of attempted murder from that riot. Not one.
The kin folk said (Score:4, Funny)
A very important and overlook point (Score:4, Interesting)
> A large majority of it is then processed in China
It's was never hard to find lithium. The main problem is processing it. It's a very nasty and expensive process. China dominates it because they don't care about their environment, and they have dirty cheap labor and huge scale.
Are western countries willing to do it? No? Then nothing will change.
You can find enough raw lithium to supply 100x the world needs, if you're not willing to process it, China will. And you'll still keep depending on them.
Re: (Score:3)
Have you got some links to a description of lithium processing?
Re: (Score:3)
Lithium carbonate is the main feedstock, and how you get that material from the natural ore/brine depends on what you're dealing with. If we're dealing with a brine then you likely have sodium, magnesium and boron contaminants. Magnesium and boron can be removed using calcium hydroxide to convert them into low solubility salts, and the remaining lithium brine separately reacted with sodium carbonate to make insoluble lithium carbonate.
The lithium carbonate filtered out and converted to lithium chloride by r
Re: A very important and overlook point (Score:2, Flamebait)
Potable water left over? (Score:1)