The Emergence of the Lithium Economy to Power the Future of Energy

Lithium has become increasingly more popular due to the variety of products that it can be made into. But what actually is lithium, and why is it so useful?

Lithium is a reactive, flammable metal that is silvery-white in appearance.  Due to its high levels of reactivity, lithium has to be stored in a particular way.  Mineral oil is used in the storage of lithium to help prevent any tarnishing or corrosion that may occur if the metal was exposed to air. 

The first chemical used in the process of producing lithium is called lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE).  The process of obtaining lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, which are usable in products, is called direct lithium extraction (DLE).  

In comparison to the traditional process of extracting lithium using brine, the DLE process is efficient 

DLE allows for more than 80% of the lithium to be recovered, whereas conventional methods only retain about 40% of the lithium.  DLE also creates lithium that is considered to be more pure, and this process requires lower rates of usage of reagents than older methods using brine.

There are 5 types of DLE technologies: adsorbents, ion exchange, solvent extraction, membrane separation, and electrochemical separation.  The only technology of these 5 that is currently being used commercially is adsorbents.  The adsorbent technology uses sorbents as a lithium-bonding material to extract lithium.  The DLE method using this technology allows for 80-99.9% of lithium to be retained. 

The uses for lithium are widely varied

This mineral can be used for simple purposes such as lubrication when made into grease, and it can be used in the manufacture of glass and ceramics.  There are also more complex applications of lithium in scientific contexts, such as in nuclear fusion and even in medicine.  There is now a medication called lithium carbonate being used to treat folks with bipolar disorder. 

The newest lithium product in demand is batteries. In 2015, batteries constituted just 30% of the demand for lithium products (greases and other industrial uses, and ceramics/glass, each accounted for 35%). 

However, it is expected that batteries will account for 95% of demand in the year 2030.