Seeing this title, you may find it incredible!What does a rope have to do with the global lithium landscape?This is no ordinary rope, but a team led by Ren Zhiyong, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University in the United States, developed a porous fiber that can be twisted into ropes that can be used to extract lithium from brine.
So what is the rope fishing technology?
Lithium is a very reactive metal, so there are no elemental substances in nature. At present, the world's lithium mainly comes from lithium ore extraction and brine extraction.
Brine, also known as salt brine, is an important chemical raw material and a liquid mineral resource with a salt content greater than 5%. It is the mother liquor that remains in the salt pond after making salt from seawater or salt lake water, and the main components are magnesium chloride, calcium sulfate, calcium chloride, sodium chloride, etc., with a bitter taste. To extract lithium from the brine in lower amounts, a large number of evaporation ponds need to be built.
The porous fiber, developed by researchers at Princeton University, has a hydrophilic interior and a waterproof surface that flows above the rope through capillary action when the rope is immersed in brine. As long as the number of ropes immersed in the brine is sufficient, the evaporation of the water can be greatly accelerated, and after the water evaporates, crystalline compounds such as sodium chloride and lithium chloride will be left on the rope.
More critically, due to the differences in the solubility of different salts, those salts with higher solubility, such as lithium chloride, crystallize in the upper part of the rope. This means that the lithium salts in the brine can also be separated with fewer chemicals.
Why is it said that "rope fishing for lithium" may change the pattern of the global lithium industry?
According to the researchers, the material of this porous fiber is very cheap, and the extraction of lithium from brine in this way can not only reduce land use by 90% and increase production speed by 20 times, but also save a lot of water and chemicals, thus greatly reducing production costs and environmental costs.
Brine and ore are both important lithium resources, but brine lithium resources account for a larger proportion and their production capacity is also larger. Relevant data show that brine lithium resources account for more than 60% of the total global lithium resources, and the production of lithium salts from brine as raw materials has lower energy consumption and cost than the production of lithium salts from ore.
In the context of the global development of clean energy, lithium plays a vital role in the strategic security of energy development strategies of various countries, and the demand for lithium in major countries is rising. If the technology eventually evolves to the point where lithium salts can be extracted from brine and even seawater on a large scale, as the researchers say, it could revolutionize the global landscape of lithium production.
However, although the technology of lithium fishing can be used to extract lithium brine, which can reduce costs and improve production efficiency, lithium brine resources are mainly distributed in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in South America. Among them, the brine lithium resources in the "lithium triangle" region of South America account for nearly 80% of the global share, while China's is about 12%. In terms of output, China is currently the world's third largest lithium mining country, second only to Australia and Chile, and has a pivotal industry position in the lithium chain.
This technology does have the potential to change the game of the global lithium industry, but it should not make the United States a lithium powerhouse unless it can control the brine lithium resources in South America's "lithium triangle" region. But I have to say, this technological invention is really great!