Posted on 10/18/2016 7:03:50 AM PDT by bananaman22
After more than tripling in price this year, Lithium is no longer that dull commodity we take for granted in our consumer electronics: It’s the commodity powering the next, undeniable energy revolution. The tight supply picture emerging as electric cars, mega-batteries and massive energy storage solutions become the cornerstones of our lives could be on the edge of turning new lithium explorers into the next barons.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Number one Lithium mining country in the world? Australia.
Lithium Ion is the current technology powering our Smart Phones.....for now.
But ask Samsung if they are going to go looking for an alternative?
Lithium Ion has the best power for size ratio out there, but it has inherent dangers, the chemicals in them will thermo-genically react and melt your phone. Hence the Note 7 issue.
The Note 7 is not alone, they just had a higher failure rate. Google “Any Smartphone” and “Fire”.
The media went after Samsung almost as hard as they go after Trump. Samsung pulled the plug on the Note 7, the media once on a narrative cant control themselves, I can see them going after Apple next.
And this thermo failure also has effected the Hybrid and Electric car industry.
Lithium. When are we going to start mining it from the sea?
Not as far-fetched thing as one may think, as every element on the periodic table is dissolved, in some measure, in sea water. It is a matter of extracting it in some useful form.
First, extract by evaporation most of the water from the mixture of molecular diversity that is the sea, making a highly concentrated brine, then by a careful application of known techniques of crystallization rates, separate the various components of the brine. Lithium belongs to the same periodic table family as sodium and potassium, and remains in solution much longer than the sodium ion when concentrated into a stronger and stronger brine solution.
The necessary heat to concentrate this brine may come from something as simple as solar collection ponds, or the use of an atomic pile to generate endless quantities of heat to force the evaporation is also a high-tech way to accelerate the process.
The most common compound containing lithium would be lithium chloride, and it crystallizes in nearly pure form at a certain point of the drying process, which makes its recovery pretty straightforward. As there is a LOT of sea water in the world, the “ore” would never run out in the remaining life cycle of the planet earth
Engineering problem. Get to work, BASF.
This was predicted. There simply is not enough Lithium to power autos.
The same is true for Gold, Platinum, and every other metal.
“...every element on the periodic table is dissolved, in some measure, in sea water”
There was a guy on “Shark Tank” who wanted get gold out of seawater. He didn’t get a deal.
Australia? Kangaroos eating vegetation with lithium. When they don’t get it...
Gold extracted from sea water is by no means a new scheme, in any way. This “plan” has been around, in some form or another, since shortly after the Civil War, and always fails for the same reason - not economically feasible to extract what gold is there. We are talking about parts per BILLION, only about 1-2 milligrams of gold per ton of sea water.
I have been buying Lithium Ion rechargeable cells for various projects for several years not to mention cell phone and computer batteries that have gone bad. As you say they have “the best power for size ratio” but they are a pain in the rump in so many ways. I have had them overheat and be destroyed. I have had them be destroyed by over-charging and conversely they have been destroyed just by letting them sit on the shelf too long and get undercharged. They can be destroyed if something bad happens to the built in circuitry that is suppose to protect them. I have many NiCad and lead acid based gel cells that are 20 years old and still functioning at a fairly high percentage of their initial capacity. But I have dozens of lithium ion cells that barely were used and have gone bad... a whole lot of of wasted dollars.
It was inevitable that when applications such as hybrid and electric cars became more popular which use much larger batteries... that is would put a strain on the supply of lithium and the price would “necessarily sky rocket”. Why is it that the people and entities advocating for “alternative energy” solutions never seem to plan for the most basic concept of supply and demand? It is because at this time the entire “eco” game is all smoke and mirrors. Governments are using it to funnel billions of dollars into the pockets of their cronies while the real backbone of the energy based economy is going to be “carbon based” fuels for the foreseeable future.
Why not use the leftovers from desalination plants instead of dumping them back into the ocean?
The price for lithium is going up?
That’s depressing...
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