Geo Dipa plans feasibility study on geothermal lithium
Dieng geothermal field, Indonesia (source: wawa-sisi.blogspot)
Alexander Richter
4 Jan 2022
With large geothermal resources in the country, Indonesia's PT Geo Dipa is exploring the option to extract lithium from geothermal brines at the Dieng field.
With current technological advances, the world already has energy/electrical power that can be stored as well so that electric power is no longer only generated and transmitted but can also be stored and transported to meet energy needs for various uses that have been using fuel. This was conveyed by Riki Firmandha Ibrahim, President Director of PT Geo Dipa Energi (Persero), in the webinar of the Nawacita Study Institute on Completely Peeling Research & Innovation of New Materials for Red and White Batteries, Thursday (11/11).
During a webinar in November 2021, Riki Firmandha Ibrahim, President Director of PT Geo Dipa Energi (Persero), emphasized that the advancement of renewable energy technology which is driven by world demands, it is necessary to ensure that Indonesia’s efforts and vision in the future must be supported by regulations that make it easy for the development of energy storage technology utilization without any more obstacles.
“The need to take sides in the relocation of manufacturers to the country will be able to balance imported products which of course have great interests from developed countries,” said Riki.
According to him, the use of energy storage in the future will change the horizon of the wider role of electric power in human civilization, because 30-40% of the cost of electric vehicles comes from energy storage.
In addition, the electricity system that leads to the use of New and Renewable Energy (EBT), which is generally intermittent, such as PV solar panels, wind power, will benefit from energy storage or batteries. Energy storage technology is not only for the use of intermittent electrical energy, but in the future it will also have a major influence on the changing direction of world transportation/electric car technology development.
Energy storage technology will also have a broad influence in the use of thermal energy systems so far, because many uses of fuel can be replaced with electricity with energy storage, so that the use of fossil fuels can be focused on higher value/beneficial uses such as petrochemicals, textiles, drugs, and others.
Furthermore, Riki conveyed, it is a necessity that Indonesia has the second potential in the world for geothermal renewable energy after the United States. Geothermal energy after the hot steam is taken, the brine or hot fluid still contains many other benefits of high value. The results of the ESDM study concluded that the lithium value in the Dieng field was the highest compared to other similar geothermal fields in Indonesia, which was around 36-86 mg/L. The estimation of the potential lithium content in the Dieng field from six power generating units (Units 1-6) will later be able to produce a total of around 3,300 – 3,500 tons which can be extracted over time because the PLTP operation is proven to be more than 100 years old.
Riki said the use of geothermal energy, which has been concluded to be relatively more expensive, must be refuted and its development accelerated. Because it is proven that the benefits of having a PLTP include creating jobs, empowering the surrounding community, and increasing regional income.
“From the other side, which is a clean environment/familiar with nature, we conclude that lithium extraction from geothermal brine is more environmentally friendly because CO2 emissions from geothermal brine produce 0 kg/ton Li, very little water use which is only 3 m^3/ ton Li and land use is only about 1 m^2/ton Li,” said Riki.
Source: Dunia Energi
