A team of Rice University researchers led by Lisa Biswal and Haotian Wang has developed an innovative electrochemical reactor to extract lithium from natural brine solutions, offering a promising approach to address the growing demand for lithium used in rechargeable batteries.
A team of Rice University researchers led by Lisa Biswal and Haotian Wang has developed an innovative electrochemical reactor to extract lithium from natural brine solutions, offering a promising approach to address the growing demand for lithium used in rechargeable batteries. This breakthrough, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, holds significant potential for renewable energy storage and electric vehicles.
Lithium is a critical component in batteries for renewable energy storage and electric vehicles, but traditional lithium extraction methods have faced numerous challenges, including high energy requirements and difficulty separating lithium from other elements. Natural brines — salty water found in geothermal environments — have become an attractive lithium source, because traditional ore sources are increasingly difficult and expensive to mine. However, these brines also contain other ions like sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium, which have very similar chemical properties to lithium, making efficient separation extremely challenging. The similarity in ionic size and charge between lithium and these other ions means that traditional separation techniques often struggle to achieve high selectivity, leading to additional energy consumption and chemical waste. Moreover, brines contain high concentrations of chloride ions that can lead to the production of hazardous chlorine gas in traditional electrochemcal processes, adding further complexity and safety concerns to the extraction process.
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(From left to right) Yuge Feng, Lisa Biswal and Yoon Park (Photo Credit: Biswal lab/Rice University).
