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The Salton Sea could be the key to electric car batteries

2024-03-08 07:56:49, Tech CNA

In the United States, demand for electric vehicles continues to grow, among other things as a result of government subsidies. But a possible shortage of lithium mineral resources, which is used to make batteries, could delay the transition from diesel vehicles to electric cars. The following material, prepared by the PBS channel, takes us to California, near the Salton Sea, where deposits of lithium ore, recently discovered, could help meet the country's energy needs and also support a region economically ruined.

In the most southeastern part of the Southern California desert is one of the most unusual plains on the planet, which looks like something out of a science fiction movie.

The reaction between warm salty water and rocks deep in the earth produces carbon dioxide.

Geologist Michael McKibben says the liquid mixture contains large amounts of the element lithium.

"The upside of a geothermal deposit is that the natural hydraulic system brings the right material to the surface," says Michael McKibben, with the University of California, Riverside.

Since the 1980s, companies have exploited geothermal resources for energy. Extracting the lithium from this solution would require only a few more processes.

Today, the United States gets most of its lithium from South America and processes it in China.

But what if the necessary lithium reserves are right here, two benefits from the same natural resource.

"This geothermal field could meet all US lithium needs".

Professor Michael McKibben says the method of extracting lithium in this geothermal field may be less harmful to the environment than other forms, such as fracturing hard rock.

The only obstacle remains the affordable technology to separate lithium efficiently and on a massive scale.

The company "Controlled Thermal Resources" is located in an area known as "Hell's Kitchen" and is conducting tests for the separation of lithium.

The company's chief operating officer, Jim Turner, says the plant was built to reuse and recycle as much as possible, including the water needed in the lithium separation process.

More than 180,000 liters of water are needed to produce one ton of lithium. As the drop in the level in this lake also shows, water is getting scarcer here. Most of the flows from the Colorado River are used mainly for agricultural areas, which form the basis of the economy in this valley.

Frank Ruiz is director of the Salton Sea program at Audubon California and is a member of the state's Lithium Valley Commission. He says the ecosystem, an essential habitat for millions of migratory birds, is close to collapse.

"This is probably one of the most serious environmental crises in the American West. In California, we have lost over 97 percent of wetlands over the past decades as a result of agricultural expansion or urban development."

Mining lithium in this valley could create a multi-billion dollar industry, fueling the transition away from fossil fuels.

This region, among the poorest in California, could have good economic benefits from lithium mining.

But residents say the area needs more services and, above all, better access to health care.

Elizabeth Jaime and her family have lived in this lakeside area for 12 years. Her son has asthma, which researchers have linked to toxic dust exposed by the drought of parts of the lake.

The region has the worst air quality in the nation and children have the highest rate of hospital visits with asthma symptoms than most of California.

"We don't know what's in the air. This is why we are concerned about lithium. What other health problems will it bring?” says resident Elizabeth Jaime.

But officials say the entire impoverished region would benefit economically from the development of the lithium mining industry in the California desert./ VOA