Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • COMMENT

How to make lithium extraction cleaner, faster and cheaper — in six steps

Demand for lithium for batteries and other green technologies is exploding. The industry must develop sustainable methods to remove and process the element from ores and brines to avoid environmental damage.
  1. Andrew Z. Haddad

    1. Andrew Z. Haddad is a research scientist in the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Lukas Hackl

    1. Lukas Hackl is a research affiliate in the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA, and chief executive at Aepnus Technology, Oakland, California, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  3. Bilen Akuzum

    1. Bilen Akuzum is a research affiliate in the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA, and chief technology officer at Aepnus Technology, Oakland, California, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  4. Garrett Pohlman

    1. Garrett Pohlman is a research affiliate in the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA, and research and development engineer at Aepnus Technology, Oakland, California, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  5. Jean-François Magnan

    1. Jean-François Magnan is an industry consultant at JF Magnan Consulting, Neuville, Canada.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  6. Robert Kostecki

    1. Robert Kostecki is a senior staff scientist and director of the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Two workers wearing yellow overalls in a lithium evaporation pond in the Atacama desert, Chile

Workers in a lithium evaporation pond in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Credit: Philippe Psaila/Science Photo Library

Demand for lithium is soaring. The element is a crucial ingredient in green technologies, including batteries in phones, laptops, electric cars and electricity grids1,2. Lithium ion batteries are among the best options for holding charge and delivering power efficiently. By 2025, demand for elemental lithium is set to be three times higher (150,000–190,000 tonnes) than it was in 20183. And by 2100, that could rise to 400,000–700,000 tonnes per year4.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 616, 245-248 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00978-2

References

  1. BNEF. Energy Storage Outlook 2019 (BloombergNEF, 2019).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries. United States National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries 2021–2030 (US Dept Energy, 2021).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Battistel, A., Palagonia, M. S., Brogioli, D., La Mantia, F. & Trócoli, R. Adv. Mater. 32, 1905440 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Ambrose, H. & Kendall, A. J. Indus. Ecol. 24, 80–89 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. USGS. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021 (US Geological Survey, 2021).

    Google Scholar 

  6. IEA. The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions (International Energy Agency, 2021).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ellestad, R. B. & Milne, L. K. Method of extracting lithium values from spodumene ores. US patent US2516109A (1950).

  8. Zhao, H., Wang, Y. & Cheng, H. Hydrometallurgy 217, 106025 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kelly, J. C., Wang, M., Dai, Q. & Winjobi, O. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 174, 105762 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Snydacker, D. H., Hegde, V. I., Aykol, M. & Wolverton, C. Chem. Mater. 30, 6961–6968 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. IEA. Global Supply Chains of EV Batteries (International Energy Agency, 2022).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Martens, E. et al. Sci. Adv. 7, eabf9971 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Lun, Z. et al. Nature Mater. 20, 214–221 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

L.H., B.A. and G.P. are employees of Aepnus Technology, a company developing technology for salt electrolysis.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links