Scientists develop new method for extracting lithium from seawater. The ore is widely used in batteries for electric cars and smartphones. The new extraction alternative can directly impact the price reduction of these products.

O lithium is a product that has had a growing demand in recent years due to its use in electric car batteries, however, the mining of this component generates negative impacts on the environment. Therefore, in order to find a solution to this, scientists have developed a method of extracting lithium from ocean waters.

Analysts point out that high demand for lithium will cause terrestrial supplies to run out by 2080

Lithium is essential for the production of rechargeable batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric cars. However, the current pace of lithium mining will not be enough to meet future demand, threatening to deplete known terrestrial supplies by 2080.

With this, the extracting lithium from sea water could be the solution to make this mineral available in a sustainable and accessible way for the electric car battery industry. A team from King Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyAt Saudi Arabia, found a way to solve the issue of lithium mining, extracting the mineral from ocean water.

The scientists' aim is to prevent the lithium supplies on Earth from running out and, at the same time, reduce the negative impacts that are generated by activity on the environment. The team claims that the new method is completely affordable for extracting lithium from ocean water, providing a potentially inexhaustible source of the mineral.

Furthermore, mining lithium from sea water it would be much less harmful to the environment, since it does not demand excessive amounts of water, as in land mining, which can waste up to half a million gallons of water per ton of lithium extracted.

Technique used by scientists for lithium mining

Ocean water contains large amounts of lithium, but in very low concentrations, making extraction of the material used in batteries for electric cars very difficult. The team of scientists presented a unique approach in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, by developing an electrochemical cell with a ceramic membrane that contains lithium, lanthanum and titanium oxide (LLTO).

This membrane serves as a fine mesh to filter lithium from seawater. With this innovative technique, the team achieved an affordable way to extract lithium from the ocean, providing a potentially inexhaustible source of the mineral. As a result, lithium ions can pass through the pores, while larger metal ions are blocked.

Sea water is fed into the cell and passes through three chambers. The positive and negative ions are separated in the first chamber and the positive ions move to the side chamber while the concentrated lithium water is fed back through the system.

1 kg of lithium in salt water will cost just $5

The team of scientists adjusted the pH of the solutions so that the purity of the final product was guaranteed and that it met the specifications of battery producers for electric cars and smartphones. The lithium concentration expands with each processing cycle, making the solution affordable and environmentally sound.

The extraction process is still at an early stage and must be proven to be cost-effective, but scientists concluded in an economic study that if the energy source is about $65 MWh, it would only take $5 of electricity to extract 1 kg of lithium from salt water.

If the price of lithium increases, battery producers are expected to start considering sea mining as an option.