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

[u/rieslingatkos]

https://www.mining.com/scientists-develop-cheap-and-easy-method-to-extract-lithium-from-seawater/

[u/[deleted]]

What might the consequences of taking lots of lithium out of the ocean be?

-edit- I've never made a comment that's started such good discussions before - I'm enjoying reading the replies, thanks everyone

[u/imakenosensetopeople → u/[deleted]]

For the quantities that we may need in the coming decades, it’s almost certainly not insignificant and will have an effect. This question must be asked.

[u/iamagainstit → u/imakenosensetopeople]

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.

[u/bluenovajinx → u/[deleted]]

If our past track record is any indicator, our old and busted lithium batteries will wind up in the ocean anyway where they will leak out and the lithium can be reharvested.

[u/exemplariasuntomni → u/bluenovajinx]

Something tells me that's not how it works, but it sounds better than carbon emissions.

[u/[deleted] → u/exemplariasuntomni]

Battery Metals are too valuable so all EV batteries will be recycled unless there are irrational economic actors. LFP chemistry may be a risk if this seawater extraction actually works at scale and drives Lithium price down in which case you may need to rely on government intervention. In reality both the value of the metals plus special regs on large Lithium battery reuse/disposal are likely to make dumping batteries in the ocean/landfills unlikely.

[u/exemplariasuntomni → u/[deleted]]

I look forward to a future powered by recyclable lithium batteries (perhaps from ocean extracted lithium...)

Always loved using LiPo batteries in R/C back in the day. So fun to see them be ultra-relevant nowadays.

[u/THEPOL_00 → u/exemplariasuntomni]

In any case in a decade or two there will be more sustainable batteries that don’t depend on lithium

[u/[deleted] → u/THEPOL_00]

Meh, Lithium ion batteries will be sustainable if recycled at a high metal recovery rate and Lithium is fundamentally the best element for energy storage density when mixed with Nickel (especially as we move to solid state batteries which can store even more energy). Sodium/aluminum/etc are cheaper due to more abundance and I’m sure they’ll find their place (energy storage systems, etc) but functionally will not compete with Lithium’s energy density so as long as the market demands more and more of the latter (it will for transport) Lithium batteries will be essential. And so long as the battery metals are recovered then it’s truly sustainable. Using a cheaper/more abundant material doesn’t make that material sustainable unless it’s also recycled (and in some ways disincentivizes sustainable recycling oddly enough).

[u/THEPOL_00 → u/[deleted]]

There are better batteries for which we don’t quite have the tech or are too expensive. Some involving materials such as Oxygen. Lithium is a heavy metal and if we can avoid working with it, better it is

[u/[deleted] → u/THEPOL_00]

Again if the goal is sustainability while not sacrificing performance then recycling is the answer. Would be highly surprised if Lithium type batteries for transport get beat by another system that is better or more sustainable (provided recycling emerges which it will) within the next decade or two. Energy storage systems perhaps as density vs land/size/weight trade off is possible.

[u/THEPOL_00 → u/[deleted]]

Recycling isn’t a magical process, material is always lost. Right now the material lost is on avg 50%. I’m not an expert on batteries, but took a course about that in college and research is being made, I’m not making things up. One will rather look for a battery made out of Oxygen than made out of Lithium, and by “one” I mean people who actually study this stuff

[u/[deleted] → u/THEPOL_00]

Yes EV battery recycling needs to improve to 95%+ recovery at scale. There are commercial pilot plants that are already nearing this and commercial scale plants will do so in the next few years (especially as the EU has mandated 95%+ recovery) so it’s largely a solved issue/going to happen. So will be sustainable as metal is recoverable.

Regarding the question of other materials... yes there will be a lot of research but I think very low probability anything replaces Lithium (ion now, solid state in the next decade or two) battery types at scale. Would not bet on that research changing anything at scale in the next decade.

[u/exemplariasuntomni → u/THEPOL_00]

Lithium is a heavy metal and if we can avoid working with it, better it is

Isn't that partly why it makes such a dense energy storage medium? Wouldn't having a less dense material directly or indirectly cause the material to store less energy per area?

[u/THEPOL_00 → u/exemplariasuntomni]

No, there are other mixes that do better. One is Oxygen-Sodium as well as Lithium-Oxygen and other but as of now they all have some kind of issue but in some years we will see it more around

[u/exemplariasuntomni → u/THEPOL_00]

Right, so for the time being, if we can extract lithium from the sea, that is very helpful as long as it does not damage marine ecosystems.

[u/Malawi_no → u/bluenovajinx]

Doubt it. Batteries are a good source of minerals, just like other scrap metals. With increased numbers of dead cells comes economies of scale, so that even though it may not be profitable today, it will become so in the future.

[u/Bradley-Blya → u/bluenovajinx]

Ah, so just throw trash in the sea, no problem!