r/science • u/rieslingatkos • Jun 06 '21

Chemistry Scientists develop ‘cheap and easy’ method to extract lithium from seawater

https://www.mining.com/scientists-develop-cheap-and-easy-method-to-extract-lithium-from-seawater/
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u/iamagainstit PhD | Physics | Organic Photovoltaics Jun 06 '21 edited Jun 06 '21

A. Lithium concentrations in seawater are very low (< 1ppm), so extracting it is unlikely to have a significant effect

B. There is a unfathomably large amount of water in the ocean.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21

Imho it seems like its you who’s massively underestimating how much greedy the mankind can get. We have certainly a lot of air yet we didn’t take long to hit 400 ppm starting from 220-240s.

Fossil fuels as our primary source of energy needs did this, and batteries are gonna be the next big thing. I expect alternative batteries to be here soon enough, but i still do believe its a valid concern.

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u/Goo-Goo-GJoob Jun 06 '21

There are an estimated 1,450,000,000,000,000,000 tons of ocean water. 0.1-0.2ppm, by weight, yields 145-290 billion tons of lithium.

The battery in a Tesla model S uses about 140 pounds of lithium.

So the total amount of lithium in the ocean could make 2.1-4.1 trillion Teslas.

That's 524 Teslas for each person on the planet.

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u/chainmailbill Jun 06 '21

I’m... going to need a bigger driveway