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Revolutionizing Lithium Production

Lithium is at the heart of all electric vehicles and grid energy storage, but producing the metal comes with significant environmental costs. Watch this video to learn about an extraction technique that slashes the amount of land and time needed for lithium production.

“We aimed to leverage the fundamental processes of evaporation and capillary action to concentrate, separate, and harvest lithium,” said Z. Jason Ren  , professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton and the leader of the research team.

Topics:
Batteries Electrification Energy Power

More From SAE Media Group

    Transcript

    00:00:01 [Music] these are evaporation ponds in South America used to extract lithium and other valuable minerals a process that requires vast areas of land researchers at Princeton University have reimagined and revolutionized the technique to extract lithium from brine utilizing 90 less land

    00:00:21 using string [Music] lithium is a much sought after metal for its role in the production of electric vehicle batteries and Renewable Energy Technologies conventional harvesting operations come with an environmental cost with extraction sites easily stretching dozens of square miles

    00:00:41 this string based technology is proving to be a climate and energy sustainable solution and is also faster and more economical leading the team is Jason Wren professor of civil and environmental engineering and the annelinger Center for Energy in the environment at Princeton University Ren along with the study's co-author Sean Zhang and other researchers have

    00:01:04 developed this novel extraction technique the strings pull up brine or salt water through capillary action the same mechanism at which a plan pulls water up from its roots soluble salt ions containing lithium are carried upwards through specialized fibers and as water evaporates the salts

    00:01:22 crystallize at specific sections and are readily available for harvesting the researchers anticipate a positive impact with this approach not only on global energy but also on U.S domestic lithium production bran and team are already developing a second generation of the technology and Zhang is leading the launch of a startup to scale the process and bring it to

    00:01:44 Market according to Ren this is an environmentally friendly solution to a critical energy challenge [Music]