Tesla looks at sourcing lithium for batteries from geothermal wells
Process of mining lithium and other metals from geothermal brine (source: Simbol Materials)
Francisco Rojas
19 Jun 2014
Tesla's Gigafactory would need vast amounts of lithium and geothermal brine is currently being researched by Simbol Materials as a viable source.
Having reported on the efforts to derive Lithium from geothermal wells at the Salton Sea, by Simbol Materials, a local news source details that “A Tesla Motors employee recently visited the Imperial Valley while the automaker considers Southern California as a potential source of lithium for batteries, a board member of the Imperial Irrigation District said Tuesday.”
Tesla is looking to secure additional sources of lithium as the Palo Alto-based electric car maker moves forward with plans for its “Gigafactory,” the world’s biggest plant to produce lithium-ion batteries. And while the location of that factory remains unclear, one potential source of lithium appears to be Simbol Materials, which has a small plant in Calipatria demonstrating a new technology that extracts lithium from the brine used to generate geothermal energy.
Due to the sheer size of the battery factory envisioned by Tesla, the company is looking at sourcing the necessary materials from all over the world. As detailed before, the brine from the geothermal process is rich in the materials needed to create such batteries and is it being currently studied as a potential source. This is still on early stages, yet the potential is latent.
For more details, please follow the link bellow.
Source: The Desert Sun Website
