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1 Introduction This report is part of an effort to assess geothermal brines as a source of commercial lithium supply for the United States. To do this, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) reviewed published techno-economic analysis of lithium extraction technologies and coordinated with the Critical Minerals Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, which focused on supply chain analysis of lithium. Data sources included studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office, which previously funded projects to support advancement of mineral recovery from geothermal brines, exploring the added value of strategic minerals recovery in geothermal operations. Now, there is renewed focus on lithium as a critical material with growing demand, particularly demand for lithium-ion batteries. Geothermal brines are potential lithium sources; lithium production as a by-product can potentially support geothermal operations with increased revenues while helping secure U.S. domestic lithium supply. 1.1 Project Motivation and Goals 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. The latest U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Mineral Commodities Summary (Jaskula 2020) estimates that 65% of the lithium end use globally is for lithium-ion batteries, and this market is expected to grow rapidly in coming years. From 2015–2019, net import reliance as a percentage of estimated consumption was typically >50%, with imports primarily coming from Argentina (53%), Chile (40%), and China (3%). With the addition of Australia, these countries are responsible for the majority of lithium production globally and produce lithium from brine and hardrock mining operations. In 2018, estimated lithium extraction and processing from evaporation ponds and hardrock leaching made up approximately 46% and 54%, respectively, of the current economically profitable lithium production methods (Facada 2019). Lithium extraction from geothermal brine could change the U.S. lithium supply significantly due to the high lithium concentrations at some geothermal fields, particularly those at the Salton Sea Known Geothermal Resource Area (KGRA). Reported 2019 brine flow from the Salton Sea geothermal wellfields is 121,308,148 metric tons (mt) (CalGEM 2019), and a conservative average lithium concentration in geothermal brine is 200 mg/L (McKibben and Hardie 1997). This represents an estimated annual lithium throughput of approximately 24,000 mt that can be converted to nearly 127,000 mt of lithium carbonate. This is significant—U.S. lithium consumption from 2015 through 2019 is estimated to be 2,000–3,000 mt per year, which can be converted to nearly 16,000 mt of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) (Jaskula 2020). The Salton Sea KGRA currently has an inferred lithium resource of 15 million mt (Chao 2020). A fully developed Salton Sea KGRA would be capable of producing more than 600,000 mt of LCE per year (Ventura et al. 2020). Additional motivation comes from the sustainability of extracting lithium from geothermal brines relative to evaporative brine and hardrock mining operations in terms of land use, water use, time to market with lithium products, and carbon intensity of operations. Extraction of lithium from geothermal brines can take advantage of on-site renewable power, heat exchange, 1 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)