Extracting Lithium from Geothermal Brines

Extracting lithium and other valuable minerals from geothermal brines is of great importance with the fierce application of lithium batteries in electronic products, new energy vehicles, and other fields. Companies are seeking novel methods for extracting lithium from brines economically produced in geothermal power plants.

Geothermal brine often contains dissolved metals, in which case it forms an important intermediary in the deposition of ore deposits. Hot brine solutions may also form through sea water-rock reactions in hydrothermal systems at oceanic ridges, e.g. in the median valley of the Red Sea.

At present, lithium is extracted mainly from lithium-rich seawater, underground hot brine, or rocks. Traditional sources of lithium are quickly being depleted and alternative supplies must be explored. One potential source is the fluid used in geothermal power plants, known as geothermal brine, but extraction of lithium from such fluids has proven challenging due to several factors including the presence of other salts in the brine.

The United States company Lilac Solutions and the Australian company Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) cooperated with the Salton Sea Salt Lake geothermal brine lithium mine in California, with its innovative lithium recovery technology, attracted Bill Gates' venture capital Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) investment of 20 million US dollars. The venture capital investors also include Alibaba's Jack Ma, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Bloomberg's Michael Bloomberg, and other capitalists.

Lilac Solutions believes its project economics are superior to the traditional methods of extracting lithium which requires evaporation ponds and considerable lengths of time to complete. The company is targeting an anticipated production date of 2023, which Controlled Thermal Resources believes could position the company to serve growing lithium demand.

In the industry's view, geothermal brine water may also become one of the solutions for China to improve the sustainable independent production of lithium and reduce its dependence on lithium imports.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the lithium project is located in the Salton Sea Salt Lake in the Imperial Valley of Southern California. The lake's salinity (4.4%) is higher than that of the Pacific Ocean, and there are many mud mounds with hot underground saltwater. These geothermal brines are rich in lithium and other mineral elements and attracted numerous companies to invest in succession. However, most of these lithium mine projects were too expensive.

Lilac Solutions claims that its company has replaced the traditional evaporation cell method with its unique ion exchange bead technology, which can continuously and efficiently process geothermal brine to purify battery-grade lithium products. This technology can not only reduce production costs but also make full use of low-grade resources.

"Electric vehicles are the most promising opportunity to reduce carbon emissions, but the insufficient supply of battery raw materials such as lithium and cobalt is its biggest challenge." BEV investor Carmichael Roberts said that Lilac Solutions' new technology of extracting lithium from geothermal brines allows manufacturers to use lower cost to extract more products from newer resources, which can change the supply and demand relationship in the lithium market. Such industrial-grade innovations can ultimately support the transition from motor vehicles to electric vehicles.

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