They report on their findings in the Energy Advances journal. Researchers from KIT’s IAM-ESS, together with the Research & Development department of EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG and scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) and Hydrosion GmbH, have built a lithium-ion sieve and tested it in the laboratory. In addition, suitable desorption solutions are needed to release the lithium ions from the adsorbent again. This requires suitable adsorbents that are not only lithium-selective, but can also be produced, used, and disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.

the accumulation of lithium ions on the surface of porous solids. “However, the extraction of lithium from geothermal brines represents a major challenge because the lithium ions competed with many other ions,” Ehrenberg adds.Ī promising way of extracting lithium from hot deep water is adsorption, i.e. Lithium concentrations of up to 240 milligrams per liter were measured in the North German Basin, and up to 200 milligrams per liter in the Upper Rhine Graben. “Depending on their geological origin, geothermal brines contain between 0.1 and 500 milligrams of lithium per liter,” explains Professor Helmut Ehrenberg, head of KIT’s Institute for Applied Materials – Energy Storage Systems division (IAM-ESS). High Lithium Concentrations in the North German Basin and in the Upper Rhine Graben In this way, geothermal systems, which pump hot water from the depths, are not only usable for the sustainable supply of electricity and heat, but also for an environmentally friendly, regional lithium extraction. They contain high concentrations of lithium ions. However, there are also European lithium deposits, namely thermal waters at a depth of a few kilometers. Until now, Europe has been dependent on imports. In recent years, demand has risen sharply worldwide. Lithium has become indispensable – the light metal is used in the batteries of many technical devices and vehicles, from smartphones and notebooks to EVs. (DOI: 10.1039/d2ya00099g)Ī sustainable energy supply requires efficient energy storage. The researchers reported in the Energy Advances journal. In the future, the use of domestic lithium sources can help to meet the increasing demand for the light metal, which is indispensable as an energy storage material. Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and EnBW have produced a lithium-ion sieve from a lithium-manganese oxide and used it to adsorb lithium from geothermal brines.

Geothermal technology not only enables sustainable supply of electricity and heat, but also regional lithium extraction.

In deeper waters lukens