The Salton Sea could produce the world's greenest lithium, if new extraction technologies work

[SunSeeker]

About 40 miles north of the California-Mexico border lies the shrinking, landlocked lake known as the Salton Sea. Though the lake was once the epicenter of a thriving resort community, water contamination and decades of drought have contributed to a collapse of its once-vibrant ecosystem and given rise to ghost towns. But amid this environmental disaster, the California Energy Commission estimates that there’s enough lithium here to meet all of the United States’ projected future demand and 40% of the world’s demand. That’s big news for the booming electric-vehicle industry, as lithium is the common denominator across all types of EV batteries.

Traditionally, lithium extraction involves either open-pit mining or evaporation ponds, which work by pumping lithium-containing brine to the surface and waiting for the water to dry up. Both of these methods have huge land footprints, are often very water intensive and can create a lot of contamination and waste.

But at the Salton Sea, three companies are developing chemical processes to extract lithium in a much cleaner way, taking advantage of the Salton Sea’s rich geothermal resources. Near the lake, there are already 11 operating geothermal power plants, 10 of which are owned by Berkshire Hathaway’s renewable energy division, BHE Renewables.

“We are already pumping 50,000 gallons of brine per minute across all of our 10 geothermal facilities to the surface,” said Alicia Knapp, president and CEO of BHE Renewables, “and we’re using the steam from that brine to generate clean energy. So we’re really halfway there in that we’ve got the lithium right here in our hands.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/04/the-salton-sea-could-produce-the-worlds-greenest-lithium.html

[2naSalit]

1. Probably the best thing...

That could happen to that cesspool.

[SunSeeker]

3. Indeed. It was vomit-inducing 20 years ago when I was there.

I hear it is much worse now.

[2naSalit]

4. It was down right disgustipatin...

Back in the mid 1980s when I last went there. And at that time there was some timeshare scam going on and they were trying to sell timeshares at the Salton Sea! My buddy, who went to the presentation for the gifts, and I had been there a couple weeks earlier. When they showed the promo videos we had to fight laughing out loud.

[SunSeeker]

5. OMFG Someone tried to sell timeshares next to that sewer pit??

[2naSalit]

6. Yup.

It was an eye opener to see how low they would go even back then.

[intrepidity]

2. Good. Now get those companies up to the Great Salt Lake

I hear it is in serious trouble.