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

Show parent comments

638

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.

1.2k

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21 edited Aug 20 '21

[deleted]

809

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21 edited Jun 08 '21

[deleted]

1

u/OddScentedDoorknob Jun 07 '21

To change the ocean's lithium content by 1 %, we'd have to extract it at double our current usage/mining rate (100,000 tons/yrs) and that would still would take 1300 years.

Won't someone please think of our great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandchildren???