The southeast tip of California's Salton Sea is home to 11 geothermal power plants that turn hot volcanic brine into clean electricity.The Salton Sea region has one of the world’s largest known reserves of lithium, enough to power batteries for more than 50 million electric vehicles within a few years. But first it must be extracted from hot geothermal brine loaded with toxic material, a process that’s never been done before at scale.
A company called Lilac Solutions, which has created an ion-exchange technology to separate lithium from a variety of brines, has decided to avoid working with the superheated poisonous brine of the Salton Sea because it’s so difficult to handle. Along with the problems that come from managing a 600-degree liquid, anyone who is trying to extract lithium also has to ensure that these other dangerous materials in the brine don’t escape into the air we breathe.
“It’s probably among the 10 biggest lithium deposits in the world,” says Michael McKibben, a geologist at the University of California, Riverside, who spends much of his time studying the Salton Sea’s metal-producing potential. He estimates the Salton Sea’s lithium capacity is nearly the size of the world’s largest deposits in Bolivia and Chile combined, at 32 million metric tons.in recent news stories.
EnergySource Minerals has been testing its iLiAD system for removing lithium from geothermal brine since 2016.The level of production Lithium Valley advocates propose “is highly unlikely to impossible” in the next few years because the extraction process is so complex, Moores says.
Controlled Thermal's long-term plans are to produce as much as 75,000 metric tons of lithium per year.He agrees that the project is far from a simple undertaking. “Nobody has done this yet,” he says. But his confidence derives from a pilot program the company has been running there since 2016, funded with a $2.5 million grant from the California Energy Commission.
Controlled Thermal Resources CEO Rod-Colwell explores the company's Hell's Kitchen property where it's building a geothermal power and lithium plant.If all goes well, in about two years the site will feature a high-tech complex with a combined geothermal energy plant and lithium facility resembling one of Musk’s Tesla Gigafactories.
BHE declined to participate in this story. Jonathan Weisgall, vice president of government relations for Berkshire’s energy division and a member of California’s Lithium Valley Commission, didn’t respond to multiple requests for comments on its Salton Sea plans.California’s lithium rush is the latest source of excitement — and expectation of money and jobs — in a dry, poor part of the state that’s been disappointed by past promising developments.
alanohnsman Idea. The salton sea is also drying up. Pipe desalinization brine to the sea for more mineral extraction and to protect marine ecosystems in the sea where it would be dumped. Lots of desalinization projects have been vetoed because of the waste brine return effects.
alanohnsman I love the sight of the photo 😍😍
alanohnsman A lot cheeper than to continue burning oil and destroying the planet
alanohnsman How do you want to produce electricity these batteries will be charging from?
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