A new method for extracting lithium from saltwater could solve lithium supply chain issues, making lithium cheaper to produce and far more widely available.

According to a study published in Matter by Stanford University researchers, the new technology can extract lithium from brines at an estimated cost of under 40 per cent that of today’s methods, and at a fourth of lithium’s current market price. The new technology is also more sustainable in its use of water, chemicals, and land.

The new method using “redox-couple electrodialysis,” or RCE, could produce high-purity lithium hydroxide for $3,500 to $4,400 per tonne, which could then be converted to battery-grade lithium carbonate inexpensively, compared with costs of about $9,100 per tonne for the dominant technology for extracting lithium from brine. The current market price for battery-grade lithium carbonate is almost $15,000 per tonne, but a shortage in late 2022 drove the volatile lithium market price to $80,000. Extracting lithium from mined rocks is even more expensive, energy intensive, environmentally unfriendly.

“The benefits to efficiency and cost innate to our approach make it a promising alternative to current extraction techniques and a potential game changer for the lithium supply chain,” said Yi Cui, the study’s senior author and a professor of materials science and engineering in the School of Engineering.

The RCE method works with a variety of saline waters, including those with varying concentrations of lithium, sodium, and potassium. Study experiments showed that the new technology could extract lithium, for example, from wastewater resulting from oil production. It could potentially be used to extract lithium from seawater, which has lower lithium concentrations than brines. Lithium extraction from seawater using conventional methods is not commercially viable with traditional methods.

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