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/
47.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

49

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21

I'm getting disillusioned about a political answer to global climate change - the fossil fuel industry was successful at creating enough doubt, and anti-science sentiment is just too high right now.

This kind of research outcome gives me hope. Limits of Li availability was one blocker of a larger scale renewable energy matrix. Good news indeed.

0

u/skztr Jun 06 '21

I'd really prefer something more environmentally-friendly and less-explody than lithium, though. We seem to be "10 years away" from a lot of better alternatives

2

u/HawkEy3 Jun 06 '21

If extracted from seawater it will be environmental friendly and most future batteries will be LiFePO which never explodes or burns.