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there is an absolutely UNBELIEVABLE amount of lithium in the oceans, so even if this works and thousands of coastal lithium plants get set up and start sucking lithium out of the sea at the same rate as current mining operations on land, it'd still not be enough to harvest even a single percent in a thousand years. there is hundreds of BILLIONS of tons of lithium in the ocean.
the environmental impact would be most felt at various corporations' excess salt dumping grounds, since there will for sure be some who don't realize you could chuck the salt back in the ocean
mining company interests will also downplay and suppress this shit but as soon as someone gets this up and running and starts selling cheap lithium....
there will of course always be the future impact of battery e-waste as batteries end up in more and more things but that's more a problem with consumerism culture rather than lithium extraction
if we absolutely have to get lithium from somewhere, I'd rather it be the ocean
you could chuck the salt back in the ocean
If you do, then you create a patch of water that's excessively salty and can't support life. It's a problem with desalination in general.
Idk but is it not possible to just have airplanes spray it over a very large area? Or something like that anyways. Maybe a big tanker ship.
I forget what the issue is there other than the obvious one of burning fuel to do that.
Suddenly I'm imagining a network of pipelines that just goes out into the ocean and has a bunch of small holes all along the way, like a massive array of soaker hoses.
I guess the problem with any of this is that there is going to be localized effects wherever you let the briny water out and it's just a question of how widespread and severe we decide to make it. :-/
Just amended it, but we're taking about burning fuel to sustain resource extraction that's supposed to be relatively cleaner.
As for the amount, that's something to look up. Desalination plants probably produce the same amount.
why couldnt you recombine it with sewer water where it reaches the ocean? So instead of dumping fresh water into the ocean, you dump salt water that matches the salinity of the ocean. Desalinization on one end, and resalinate the waste water that goes back to the ocean, closed loop.
one environmental positive would be the cessation of land based lithium mining. the methods to concentrate lithium out of rock and brine are fucking crazy compared to passing seawater through a membrane with some electricity
One option is killing two birds with one stone and killing the salt mining industry that mines salt for melting ice.
where in the ocean and how would we get it out? Any links? I'd be interested in checking it out!
all of it. seawater contains a little lithium. link is in title of thread
Collect the lithium from the waste water of major cities.
as a chemist lithium is NOT needed for grid storage batteries are stupid and expensive compared to flywheels, water pumping. Lithiums advantage is weight which is important for transportation /handheld devices but when you're allowed to be stationary and HEAVY (like grid storage) you can ignore lithium batteries and go for mechanical storage.
but when you’re allowed to be stationary and HEAVY (like grid storage) you can ignore lithium batteries and go for mechanical storage.
Redox flow batteries seem like a great option for this.
Degrowth isn't an option in capitalism though, that is all the excuse they need.
If it actually works it will be patented and then only allowed to governments that can afford the public-private partnerships that essentially totally privatize the water works of the places this takes place in. If it doesn't work it will bleed governments dry until they catch on that it doesn't. Wouldn't be surprised if there's a race-to-the-bottom bidding war for these in the places that need them.
If it doesn’t work it will bleed governments dry until they catch on that it doesn’t. Already happening throughout CA w/ desal. San Diego has had a boondoggle with Poseidon Water.
This is true in the US, maybe, but China could pull this off well on a national scale, assuming it works.
One downside is Bolivia, a landlocked country rich with lithium, will suddenly not be able to fund as many social programs if the cost of lithium goes down
Bolivia has other resources too. Resources can be a blessing and a curse, hopefully they may manage to sort this out and successfully diversify.
Haven't read anything about this yet, but I remember seeing "get gold from the ocean, THE OCEAN! Can you believe it? WE'LL ALL BE RICH!" many years ago.
I hope this isn't that.
Pretty awesome discovery, too bad capitalists are too stupid and short-sighted to take advantage of it
Increased power usage which will almost certainly be a fossil fuel plant. If its not a nuclear desalination and lithium making plant that is community owned and operated its going to have very serious downsides.
At the scale and % of lithium mined, it would have to process a lot of water, but its not like the water would get pumped out to sea and at that low of a concentration I doubt sea life would struggle to get theit intake of Li through diffusion.
I don't know but I sorted by controversial and found this funny pure ideology thread of people criticizing the "sustainability" grift, and redditors denying that they're any problems
https://old.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ntbz4r/scientists_develop_cheap_and_easy_method_to/h0rd6x6/
-16 points 8 hours ago
Except the manufacturing of them... though they are less harmful to the atmosphere, as far pollution levels Studies have shown that in the US, Europe, and in China, producing an electric vehicle creates more greenhouse-gas emissions than producing an equivalent gas-powered vehicle.
-2 points 7 hours ago
Correct. And over the life of the vehicle, the electric car contributes about 85% of the CO2 that a gas car would (manufacturing plus operation). Electric vehicles are nowhere near the ‘earth saver’ that many think they are.
That looks like a number you would get if you would burn petrol to produce electricity for your car exclusively, which of course is not true anywhere.
didn't NY just shut down their nuclear power? Good luck finding energy without buying fossil fuels, California!
truth is being swept under the rug. None of the lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles are recyclable in the same sense that paper, glass, and lead car batteries are.
They can recycle practically the entire battery.
no
:agony-limitless:
When I thought of countries with sparsely populated coastlines, I immediately thought of Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, Australia, Namibia, and Eastern Russia are other possibilities.
China laughing at your patent and just making the world a better place without your permission
:wojak-nooo: noooo you can't eliminate a desert!!
:some-controversy: haha socialism go brrrr
