2 ms·

$5 a kilogram from seawater seems almost magical, I look forwards to the actual proof.

• adrian_b 5y ago
  $5 per kg for the electricity expenses is far from magical, but it should be low enough to make the extraction profitable. I do not know the current price of lithium, because most previous information sources, like the metal exchanges, no longer make their data public. Nevertheless, a few years ago lithium was around $66 per kg. So $5 would be just about 7.5% of the price per kg, but there are a lot of other costs, like replacing from time to time the expensive LLTO ceramic membrane and the very expensive Pt-Ru coated cathode and also many other operational costs and the amortization of the investment. For reversible batteries, the conversion of lithium phosphate to another lithium salt might be enough, but for applications that need metallic lithium, like primary batteries or Li-Al alloys, the lithium phosphate must be converted into lithium chloride or other suitable salt and the metallic lithium must be extracted by electrolysis, with additional, higher, costs for electric energy. However, the method described is sound and there are also useful byproducts to ensure or increase the profit. The method is not new, but the major achievement is finding a suitable material for the selective membrane, which passes lithium but blocks the much more abundant sodium & potassium. Unlike many such announcements, this appears to have good chances to eventually be used for lithium extraction.
  • Scoundreller 5y ago
    > the very expensive Pt-Ru coated cathode The Pt-Ru is just a catalyst, no? Maybe it gets contaminated but it would hopefully be recycled. Might even go up in value over time rather than be consumed.