Researchers at George Washington University (GWU), in collaboration with other institutions, have developed a method to directly extract and purify lithium from geothermal brines for use in EV batteries.

Their study, “Electro-driven direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines to generate battery-grade lithium hydroxide,’’ was published in Nature Communications.

The process avoids harsh chemicals and uses a special material that selectively captures lithium ions from the brine. The captured lithium is then converted into lithium chloride and finally into EV battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

The research team conducted an economic analysis and found that the method could produce battery-grade lithium at a competitive cost from geothermal brines, specifically from sources like the Salton Sea in California.

The research was led by Xitong Liu, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the GWU School of Engineering and Applied Science. The technology is set to be tested at scale in the coming years.

Source: The George Washington University