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Executive Summary The United States has a large, domestic source of lithium in geothermal fluids, especially at the Salton Sea region of southern California, where estimates of lithium pass-through at geothermal plants exceed 24,000 metric tons per year, based on 2019 geothermal plant operations. Lithium extraction from geothermal brines offers the potential to provide the United States with a secure, domestic supply of lithium to meet the increasing demands of electric vehicles, grid energy storage, portable electronics, and other end-use applications. Additionally, the use of direct extraction technologies allows for a more sustainable lithium supply relative to current evaporative brine and hardrock mining operations in terms of land use, water use, time to market with lithium products, and carbon intensity of operations. This report is part of an effort to assess geothermal brines as a source of commercial lithium supply for the United States. In this study, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) reviews and summarizes public techno- economic analyses of lithium extraction technologies. The work was coordinated with the Critical Minerals Institute at the Colorado School of Mines who focused on supply chain analysis of lithium. Mineral extraction from geothermal brines in the Salton Sea and elsewhere has a decades-long history, but there have been few pilot-scale field tests focused on extraction of lithium from geothermal brines. There are also limited publicly available cost and performance data to fully evaluate the techno-economics of lithium extraction from geothermal brine. There are, however, demonstrations in progress that will more fully inform future analyses. For this report, technical and economic data are reviewed from projects focused on lithium extraction from geothermal and other brine types to assess the technologies being deployed and estimated costs to produce end products lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) and lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LiOH·H2O). A review of these projects indicates expected production costs (i.e., operating expenses or OPEX) near $4,000/metric ton of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) and reported internal rates of return suggest this production cost target is economically feasible with estimated prices of ≥$11,000/mt LCE. For comparison, market prices since mid-2018 have ranged from approximately $20,000/mt to $7,500/mt LCE. Many techniques and process strategies have been proposed to extract lithium directly from geothermal and other brines, and these can be generally categorized into adsorption, ion exchange, and solvent extraction techniques. Of these technologies, the ones currently advancing to pilot- and near-commercial-scale demonstrations involve adsorption and ion exchange techniques. Recent and ongoing lab studies on direct lithium extraction (DLE) from brines have focused largely on sorbent and solvent performance, with goals to increase lithium selectivity relative to competing ions, increase operating cycles between regeneration and replacement, and lower costs of sorbent and solvent manufacturing. DLE technologies also present the opportunity to increase sustainability and reduce overall impacts when compared to traditional evaporative pond and hardrock mining methods for producing lithium. Improved performance of sorbent and solvents will be primary drivers of future cost reductions and improved economics for lithium extraction from geothermal brines. There is a diverse array of research focused on lithium extraction from brines, and continued lab-scale work may improve current techniques or identify new techniques that contribute toward commercialization. Geothermal operators at the Salton v This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.PDF Image | Lithium Extraction from Geothermal Brines
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Product and Development Focus for Infinity Turbine
ORC Waste Heat Turbine and ORC System Build Plans: All turbine plans are $10,000 each. This allows you to build a system and then consider licensing for production after you have completed and tested a unit.Redox Flow Battery Technology: With the advent of the new USA tax credits for producing and selling batteries ($35/kW) we are focussing on a simple flow battery using shipping containers as the modular electrolyte storage units with tax credits up to $140,000 per system. Our main focus is on the salt battery. This battery can be used for both thermal and electrical storage applications. We call it the Cogeneration Battery or Cogen Battery. One project is converting salt (brine) based water conditioners to simultaneously produce power. In addition, there are many opportunities to extract Lithium from brine (salt lakes, groundwater, and producer water).Salt water or brine are huge sources for lithium. Most of the worlds lithium is acquired from a brine source. It's even in seawater in a low concentration. Brine is also a byproduct of huge powerplants, which can now use that as an electrolyte and a huge flow battery (which allows storage at the source).We welcome any business and equipment inquiries, as well as licensing our turbines for manufacturing.CONTACT TEL: 608-238-6001 Email: greg@infinityturbine.com (Standard Web Page)