Arkansas May Have Vast Lithium Reserves, Researchers Say (nytimes.com)
(Monday October 21, 2024 @05:22PM (msmash)
from the pleasant-surprise dept.)
- Reference: 0175296905
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/10/21/1915242/arkansas-may-have-vast-lithium-reserves-researchers-say
- Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/business/energy-environment/arkansas-lithium-ev-batteries.html
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, [1]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."
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/business/energy-environment/arkansas-lithium-ev-batteries.html
> 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."
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/business/energy-environment/arkansas-lithium-ev-batteries.html
And all of that (Score:2)
by Malay2bowman ( 10422660 )
Should go to Trump to calm him down. Maybe he will stop talking about pointing military guns at US citizens.
The kin folk said (Score:2)
by zawarski ( 1381571 )
Jed move away from here!
Is it economical? (Score:2)
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 So
Re: (Score:2)
> 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:2)
Why do South Americans evaporate instead of doing this?