The most important component in the battery industry .. Lithium gives California the leadership in the energy of the future

The so-called Salton Sea, located about 50 kilometers south of Joshua Tree National Park in the US state of California, is actually a polluted lake in the middle of the desert.

The lake was formed in 1905 when floodwaters from the Colorado River spilled into an irrigation canal and made their way into the Salton Basin, a large basin where the water is still standing today.

The occasional swimming hole became a tourist destination in the ensuing years.

But today, the air is toxic, and the water is exceptionally foul due to the reaction of chemicals coming from the farms.

And there may be some good that can come from behind this interaction.

Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California Riverside and the Geologica Geothermal Group are searching for a huge geothermal reservoir around and under the lake.

The hot brine in the tank is known as "geothermal brine" and when pumped thousands of feet underground, it is converted into gas that turns turbines that generate huge amounts of electricity.

This process is exactly what is happening at the 11 geothermal plants in the area now.

However, there's an added benefit: This pumping process brings in lithium, the primary metal that can be used to make electric car batteries.

For years, the liquid was pumped back into the ground after it cooled, but now scientists are keen to get the lithium out of it first.

Lake Salton was formed in 1905 after flood waters from the Colorado River spilled into an irrigation canal (communication sites)

Hot brine that comes from underground, as part of geothermal production at Salton Lake in California, is a stew rich in minerals including iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium and lithium.

Using various extraction techniques, lithium chloride can be extracted from brine, and then processed into other forms to produce batteries.

An October 2021 memo from the US Bureau of Geothermal Technologies' Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy stated, "In reusing the extracted liquids already used to produce electricity as a source of lithium, we can bring domestic lithium to the market while simultaneously producing electricity, all with minimal ecological footprint.

The project is sponsored by the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Geothermal Technologies.

This project is the first detailed investigation to map the so-called "lithium valley" in California.

On February 16, 2022, Berkeley Lab announced that the Office of Geothermal Technologies is funding its research for up to $1.2 million.

One of the many purposes of the investigation is to determine the amount of lithium in the field.

The team also plans to examine potential environmental impacts to determine the amount of water and chemicals needed to extract the lithium.

“The Salton Sea geothermal system is the primary potential geothermal resource for lithium in the United States, and it is a global resource, but there is a wide range of estimates in terms of resource size, and there is also not a good understanding of the source of lithium,” says Pat Dobson, Berkeley Lab scientist and project leader. "The rate at which it will decrease over time as the lithium is extracted from the brine, and whether it will be replenished with what remains of the lithium in the rocks."

Saudi Lithium

According to the scientists, the geothermal field hidden under Salton Lake has the potential to hold enough lithium to meet all of the United States' lithium requirements.

Moreover, it can be exported.

State Governor Gavin Newsom has dubbed California "the Kingdom of Lithium Saudi Arabia" and created the Lithium Valley Commission last year to investigate and report on opportunities in the valley.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called the state "Lithium Saudi Arabia" (Reuters)

Michael McKibbin, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, who has been studying geothermal energy in the Salton Sea since the 1970s, agrees.

"If you do a simple math, you'll find between 1 million and 6 million metric tons of lithium here," McKibbin says. "That would be the largest source of lithium in brine in the world, so that means there's a potential for 50 to 100 years of lithium production."

Why is lithium so important for electric vehicles?

It is an undeniable fact that the interest in electric cars is increasing.

Therefore, this research project is vital to the electric vehicle industry.

The cleanliness of lithium mining may be a matter of dispute.

However, if we use lithium-ion batteries to charge electric cars, the lithium reserves in the Salton Sea will be an important revelation.

The research has huge potential because the electric car industry can develop thanks to the huge amount of lithium extracted from the depths of the Salton Sea.