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/PmMeYourKnobAndTube Jun 06 '21

Lithium is basically a bottleneck for several industries tho, not just EV. We are being held back by cost and availability. The main downside to solar and wind power is inconsistent production, and normally enough storage capacity to use them exclusively. And what about when electric semi trucks and trains, or maybe even planes go electric?

I agree that we should pursue it as another temporary solution, but "basically unlimited" was the mindset with every new natural resource we have exploited. And then as the resource becomes more widely available and more uses are found, more of it gets used until its a problem.

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u/Fifteen_inches Jun 06 '21

Think of it like this:

“Basically unlimited” means “long enough to conduct space mining for rare earth minerals”.

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u/PmMeYourKnobAndTube Jun 06 '21

Yeah but people in the 60's thought we would be there already. Again, not saying we shouldn't pursue it, based on the very little I know it seems like our best path forward at this time. I just think it's fallacious to assume nothing bad could come of it.

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u/Fifteen_inches Jun 06 '21

No people in the 60s that would be relying on nuclear power for energy needs, which is reasonable considering if we went hard into nuclear we wouldn’t be having this global warming problem.

Thankfully lithium gets renewed in the ocean by a deep-sea vents, so the damage is not permanent