Bioprocessing of lithium brines

温室气体排放导致的全球变暖已经在扰乱自然界和人类社会。我们必须减少和消除我们的温室气体排放，以防止灾难性的气候变化。这意味着利用太阳能、风能和地热等可再生能源发电，并使用电力驱动的车辆。由于可再生能源可以是间歇性的(例如，风并不总是吹着的)，我们需要能够存储使用电池产生的能量。电动汽车也需要轻质电池。因此，制造大量电池将是我们向温室气体低排放社会过渡的关键部分。大多数现代电池使用化学元素锂作为主要成分。带正电的锂在电池结构中的运动储存和释放电能，这意味着要制造更多的电池，我们需要更多的锂。目前，我们从两个主要来源获得锂：开采富含锂的岩石(主要在澳大利亚)和从储存在岩石中的咸水(称为卤水)中提取锂(主要在南美洲)。在英国的岩石中也可以发现富锂卤水，包括康沃尔，这可以用来为英国提供可靠的锂供应，用于电池制造。这些康沃尔卤水在抽出时是热的--除了含有锂外，它们还是地热和发电的来源。该项目将使用生物技术来帮助从地热卤水中回收锂。尽管有从卤水中提取锂的技术，但盐水中的其他化学元素可能会导致管道结垢(很像水壶中的结垢)，堵塞系统，然后需要使用有毒化学物质进行昂贵的清洗。在这项研究中，我们将使用能够从盐水中的元素中产生白垩状矿物的细菌来在锂提取过程开始时去除有问题的元素。在此之后，我们将使用称为硅藻的藻类来去除盐水中的二氧化硅，以防止结垢的另一个原因。我们将与工业合作伙伴康尼什锂公司合作，建立一个高达1000升的中试提取系统，以测试这些工艺是否可以用于商业锂提取。该项目旨在寻找这种生物技术为循环经济做出贡献的新方法。首先，我们将研究是否可以使用废物(牛尿)来喂养细菌，这些细菌可以制造出白垩状的矿物质。第二，我们会测试细菌和硅藻处理池产生的废物是否可以用来改良营养不良和酸性的本地农业土壤。最后，我们将进行生命周期评估，以找出与其他技术相比，该系统的碳足迹、环境影响、成本和收益如何。

Global heating due to greenhouse gas emissions is already disrupting the natural world and human society. We must reduce and eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change. This means generating electricity from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal and using vehicles powered by electricity. As renewable energy sources can be intermittent (e.g. the wind doesn't blow all the time), we need to be able to store the energy generated using batteries. Electric vehicles also need lightweight batteries. Making lots of batteries will therefore be a key part of our transition to a society with low greenhouse gas emissions.Most modern batteries use the chemical element lithium as a main component. Movement of the positively charged lithium through the battery structure stores and releases the electrical energy, meaning that to make many more batteries, we need a lot more lithium. At present we get lithium from two main sources: mining rocks rich in lithium (mostly in Australia) and extracting lithium from salty water (called brine) stored in rocks (mostly in South America). Lithium-rich brines can also be found in rocks in the UK, including in Cornwall, which could be used to give the UK a reliable lithium supply for battery manufacture. These Cornish brines are hot when they are pumped out - as well as containing lithium they are a source of geothermal heat and power from which electricity can be generated. This project will use biotechnology to help recover lithium from geothermal brines. Although technology exists to extract lithium from brine, other chemical elements in the brine can cause scaling (much like in a kettle) in the pipes and clog up the system, which then requires expensive cleaning with toxic chemicals. In this research we will use bacteria that can make chalk-like minerals from the elements in the brine to remove problematic elements at the beginning of the lithium extraction process. After this we will use algae called diatoms to remove silica from the brine to prevent another cause of scaling. We will work with an industrial partner, Cornish Lithium, to build a pilot-scale extraction system of up to 1000 litres to test whether these processes could be used in commercial lithium extraction.This project aims to find new ways in which this biotechnology can contribute to the circular economy. Firstly, we will investigate if we can use waste products (cow urine) to feed the bacteria that make the chalk-like minerals. Secondly, we will test whether the waste materials from the bacteria and diatom treatment tanks can be used to improve local agricultural soils which are nutrient poor and acidic. Finally, we will perform a life cycle assessment to find out how the carbon footprint, environmental impacts, costs and benefits of the system compared with other technologies.