Clean and cheap lithium production using electrochemistry

全球锂电池市场的繁荣无法用目前的锂生产方法来维持，这些方法只能在世界上有限的地方应用，并产生重大的碳影响。因此，康沃尔语锂公司（https：//cornishlithium.com/）率先从康沃尔（英国）的地热沃茨中可持续地生产锂，目的是确保制造电动汽车电池的材料供应。然而，以具有竞争力的成本生产锂并对环境的影响最小是一个巨大的挑战，在这个项目中，我们将研究新的电化学方法来实现这一目标。基于我们在电化学锂生产和材料创新方面的经验，我们将利用电池材料对锂的选择性，优先从含有大量过量其他离子（如钠）的锂资源（如地热沃茨）中提取锂离子。将开发保护涂层和新型纳米结构材料，以实现商业应用所需的长期稳定性，并将开发新型电池设计和电化学方法，以利用地热沃茨的热能来加速反应。该项目最终将在康沃尔语锂设施的小型试验规模上展示新技术。

The boom in the global lithium battery market cannot be sustained with current methods of lithium production, which can only be applied in limited locations in the world and have a significant carbon impact. Therefore, Cornish Lithium (https://cornishlithium.com/) is pioneering the sustainable production of lithium from geothermal waters in Cornwall (UK), with the purpose of securing the supply of materials for the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles. However, producing lithium at a competitive cost and with minimal impact to the environment is a big challenge, and in this project we will investigate new electrochemical approaches to achieve this. Building on our experience on electrochemical lithium production and materials' innovation, we will exploit the selectivity of battery materials towards lithium to preferentially extract lithium ions from lithium resources (e.g. geothermal waters) that contain other ions (e.g. sodium) in vast excess. Protective coatings and novel nanostructured materials will be developed to achieve the long-term stability required for commercial applications, and novel cell designs and electrochemical approaches will be developed to take advantage of the thermal energy of geothermal waters to accelerate the reactions. The project will culminate with the demonstration of the new technology at mini-pilot scale at Cornish Lithium facilities.