Lithium production though String technology

• Presently, Lithium production is an extremely resource-intensive and time-consuming process.
• A large majority of the lithium produced in the world is extracted from “brine reservoirs” located in salt flats.

• This method of production can require hundreds of square kilometres, and it often takes months or even years to produce lithium that can be used in batteries.
• University of Princeton engineers have developed a new string-based technology that could change that.

NEW TECHNIQUE

• The researchers used a set of porous fibres twisted into strings and engineered them to have a water-loving (hydrophilic) core and water-repelling surface.

• When one end is dipped in a salt-water solution, the water travels up the string because of capillary action.
  • This is the same process used by trees to raise water from roots to leaves.
• Then, the water evaporates quickly from the string’s surface. This leaves behind salt ions such as sodium and lithium.
• The water will continue to evaporate like this as the salts become increasingly concentrated, eventually forming sodium chloride and lithium chloride crystals.
  • This can be harvested relatively easily.
• Since lithium and sodium have different physical properties, they crystallise at different locations on the strings.
  • Sodium, with its low solubility, crystallises on the lower part, while the highly soluble lithium salts crystallise near the top.

ADVANTAGE

• The researchers estimate that it can cut the amount of land required by 90 per cent while accelerating the evaporation technique by more than 20 times.
• It will also allow us to look into new areas to extract lithium from. For example, defunct oil and gas wells and geothermal brines that are currently considered too small or too diluted for lithium extraction could become viable sources.