(Credit: Argonne National Laboratory)Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have published research on extracting critical materials from water for use in the clean energy supply chain.
The Argonne team has explored how different types of water resources, such as the ocean, groundwater aquifers, geothermal brines, and even wastewater, could be used as sources of needed valuable materials.
As the United States works to decarbonize its economy, the resources required for batteries, catalysts, nuclear reactors, and other carbon-free energy technologies are limited. Further, traditional mining techniques used for lithium, a major element used in electric vehicles, require massive amounts of water and cause considerable emissions despite its crucial role in the green energy transition. The lithium industry is growing at an incredibly fast rate, so keeping the industry both profitable and green is a constant concern. This research explores other ways of extracting lithium, potentially having a smaller environmental impact while meeting increased demand.
“Lithium is in the ocean and in geothermal brines; you’d extract it differently from these two sources but it’s important to understand which is cheapest, has the smallest environmental impact, and enables secure supply chains,” said Seth Darling, chief science and technology officer for Argonne’s Advanced Energy Technologies directorate. “For many other materials, water is underexplored as a source, and that’s something we’re paying increasingly more attention to.”
According to Argonne’s report, different types of water offer varying types of necessary material resources. The ocean has vast quantities of needed materials, but they are highly dilute. Meanwhile, groundwater aquifers and geothermal brines can take years for their water to evaporate and make lithium available.
Technologies are being developed by the Argonne team to make water evaporate more quickly in order to reach lithium and other materials expediently. Porous photothermal materials may be used to heat water and accelerate evaporation, for example.
The Argonne Lab has also recently explored alternatives to lithium batteries, seeking to allow more environmentally friendly, cost-effective options for the green energy sector. According to Argonne Lab, their specialization in materials, chemistry, and process engineering relevant to critical material extraction allows them to contribute to a more circular economy of materials.
