permafrost Loc: Minnesota

We always see new developments as needs change in the economy. this is one of the newest.

See what you think.. still a good ways off to be used but growing fast.. and very much needed.

https://www.freethink.com/technology/lithium-mining?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=echobox_freethink&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1663026598


Lithium mining just became a water sport

Lithium mining is damaging to the environment, yet we need it for car batteries. Now, scientists claim to have found a way to extract lithium from seawater.
By Teresa Carey
June 16, 2021



ithium is an essential component of most rechargeable batteries, powering everything from iPhones to Teslas. However, increased lithium mining due to rising demand will deplete known land-based supplies by 2080.

A team of scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, in Saudi Arabia, says they already have a solution in the works: before land-based lithium runs out, shift lithium mining to the ocean. The team claims they’ve created an affordable method for extracting lithium from the seawater, potentially unlocking a practically infinite supply of lithium.

The challenge: Land-based lithium mining is incredibly damaging to the environment, and it wastes huge amounts of water — up to 500,000 gallons of water per ton of lithium extracted.

Seawater contains 5,000 times the amount of lithium found on land, but only in very low concentrations, which has made previous attempts to extract lithium from the ocean ineffective.

What they did: The team, led by Zhiping Lai, took a unique approach to lithium mining, explained in a paper in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. They created an electrochemical cell, containing a ceramic membrane made from lithium lanthanum titanium oxide (LLTO). It sounds like a mouthful, but you can think of it as a simple mesh that filters out lithium.

The cell’s crystal structure has tiny pores. As a result, lithium ions can travel through gaps in the membrane, while bigger metal ions are blocked.

Inside the cell are three chambers. First, the seawater flows into a central feed chamber, where the positive and negative ions are separated. Then, positive ions move through the LLTO membrane into a side chamber, while negative ions exit into a separate third chamberThen, the lithium-concentrated water is fed through the system again.

With each processing cycle, the lithium concentration gets higher and higher, the team explained in a statement.

The final touch was a slight adjustment to the solutions’ pH, ensuring the final lithium solution barely had any traces of other metals. This made sure the final product was pure enough to fulfill the specifications of battery makers, reports Mining Dot Com.

Is it economical? The system can’t replace lithium mining yet. The process has only seen early tests and has to prove it can scale, but the team says it could eventually become cost-effective.

They conducted an economic study and concluded that if power costs $65 per MWh (close to the average for businesses in Saudi Arabia), the process would only require $5 of electricity to extract 1 kilogram of lithium from saltwater.

The process may not be ready for prime time yet, but if the price of lithium spikes, expect battery makers to look to the sea.

Smedley_buzkill

You believe this crap? As of now, there is not enough recoverable lithium in the world to power your boy Biden's grandiose plans. Most of what we do have comes from Chinese strip mines that make the ones we had in Kentucky fifty years ago look like models of environmental responsibility. Virtue signal about saving the environment while you destroy a large part of it.

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

I found it very interesting.. a good example of developments made in a short time . when things need doing, most often someone thinks outside the box and finds a way to to a solution.. this may become one of those things..

I should add that I do find it painful that this is being worked on is SA... of all places..

BIRDMAN

Don’t invest in this company I remember when they were going to Mine the salt water for gold

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

I still recall when i was a little kid, some guy was going to extract the gold from sea water.... that did not work or I think we would have heard the news.

This is what you just said.. darn, I never get to deliver the news..

Anyway, would like to have this work.. lot of stuff being done now and hard to follow it all..

BIRDMAN

Yep back in the early 70s when they still said a mini ice age was coming

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

That ice age was very few, but it made a nice headline.. sold papers.. the CC was known and published or hidden in some case back in the 60s or even earlier.. a very few studied it much earlier one guy in the 1800s..

Big dog

It makes sense, the oceans contain every element found on Earth.

Bevvy

I see you are still following the cult of the global warming god

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Did you have a good warm summer? Dry in your neck of the woods? Where the heck do you live? what corner of our country.. CC is all around us and world wide..

BIRDMAN

Of course climate change is real this summer was hot and I got a feeling it’s going to be cold in the winter

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

You should not try to make light of such an urgent problem.. it only shows you refuse to deal with facts..

Big dog

BIRDMAN

What do you think the worst problem caused by climate change in the next 50 years would be

BIRDMAN

But I do like the meme