A huge supply of lithium has been found in Pennsylvania. Lithium is an element needed for electric car batteries and the green energy transition. But as law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds notes, this lithium probably won’t be tapped for many years, because “the Chinese government will now rush to fund ‘activist’ groups that will tie its extraction up in environmental challenges.”
Science Alert reports on the discovery, noting that researchers have uncovered a vast
untapped reservoir – one that could cover nearly half the nation’s lithium demands. It’s hiding in wastewater from Pennsylvania’s gas fracking industry.
Lithium is arguably the most important element in the nation’s renewable energy transition – the material of choice for electric vehicle batteries. And yet, there is but one large-scale lithium mine in the US, meaning for the moment the country has to import what it needs….Expanding America’s lithium industry, however, is highly controversial, as mining can destroy natural environments, leach toxic chemicals, and intrude on sacred Indigenous land….
Pennsylvania sits on a vein of sedimentary rock known as the Marcellus Shale, which is rich in natural gas. The geological foundation was deposited almost 400 million years ago by volcanic activity, and it contains lithium from volcanic ash. Over vast stretches of time, deep groundwater has dissolved the lithium in these rocks, essentially “mining the subsurface”, according to Justin Mackey, a researcher at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pennsylvania.
Mackey and his colleagues have now found that when wastewater is dredged up from the deep by fracking activities, it contains an astonishing amount of lithium. “We just didn’t know how much was in there,” says Mackey….If scientists can extract even a conservative amount of lithium from fracking wastewater in the state, they calculate it could meet more than 30 percent of the current US demand.
That sounds really promising, but the potential environmental impact of extracting lithium from fracking wastewater is as yet unexplored.
Recently, researchers discovered how to make lithium-fee sodium-ion batteries. That could reduce the need for lithium, for things like data centers and EV charger backup storage.
A new substance discovered by artificial intelligence could also reduce lithium use in batteries. Microsoft, which is collaborating with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), said that the new “material, unknown to us and not present in nature” could potentially reduce lithium use in batteries by up to 70% and “have tremendous environmental, safety, and economic benefits.”
Last year, it was discovered that there are large amounts of lithium in a U.S. volcano. The Great Salt Lake may also contain significant amounts of lithium that can be extracted.
