The human identity might be constructed upon a myriad of different things, but none define it better than our willingness to improve at a consistent clip. We say this because the stated willingness has brought the world some huge milestones, with technology emerging as quite a major member of the group. The reason why we hold technology in such a high regard is, by and large, predicated upon its skill-set, which guided us towards a reality that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look beyond the surface for one hot second, it will become abundantly clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired from the way we applied those skills across a real world environment. The latter component, in fact, did a lot to give the creation a spectrum-wide presence, and as a result, initiate a full-blown tech revolution. Of course, this revolution eventually went on to scale up the human experience through some outright unique avenues, but even after achieving a feat so notable, technology will somehow continue to bring forth the right goods. The same has turned more and more evident in recent times, and assuming one new discovery ends up with the desired impact, it will only put that trend on a higher pedestal moving forward. .

The researching team at Princeton University has successfully developed an extraction technique, which can slash the amount of land and time needed for lithium production. Meant to improve production at existing lithium facilities and unlock sources previously seen as too small or diluted to be worthwhile, the whole technique is based on a set of porous fibers twisted into strings, strings that the researchers, in turn, would engineer to have a water-loving core and a water-repelling surface. On an actionable note, the ends of the stated material must be dipped in a salt-water solution, and as soon as you do that, the water will travel up the strings through capillary action, the same process trees use to draw water from roots to leaves. Anyway, not long after that, the water will evaporate from each string’s surface, leaving behind salt ions such as sodium and lithium. This is more likely to be a constant process. Hence, with water continuing to evaporate, the salts in play should become increasingly concentrated and eventually form sodium chloride and lithium chloride crystals on the strings, thus making it possible to conduct the entire harvesting process rather easily. Apart from that, these salt concentrations also cause the lithium and sodium to crystallize at distinct locations along the string due to their different physical properties. Having such a feature at their disposal meant the researchers could procure lithium and sodium individually without using any of the chemicals that are usually required around here.

“We aimed to leverage the fundamental processes of evaporation and capillary action to concentrate, separate, and harvest lithium,” said Z. Jason Ren, professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton and the leader of the research team. “We do not need to apply additional chemicals, as is the case with many other extraction technologies, and the process saves a lot of water compared to traditional evaporation approaches.”

The facet making this technique nothing short of a landmark breakthrough is how traditional brine extraction would involve building many huge evaporation ponds to concentrate lithium from salt flats, salty lakes, or groundwater aquifers. Given the complexities that brings in, the process tends to take months and even years before it reaches fruition. In case those limitations weren’t enough, the commercial viability of it is also restricted to a few locations, as any picked spot needs to have high starting lithium concentrations, an abundance of available land, and an arid climate to maximize evaporation. Fortunately, the technique in question solves our conundrum by reducing the amount of land needed here by more than 90 percent, while simultaneously accelerating the evaporation process at 20 times the rate displayed across traditional evaporation ponds. To be more specific, it can deliver initial lithium harvests in less than one month.

For the future, the technique has the means to expand access to include new sources of lithium, such as disused oil and gas wells and geothermal brines that are currently too small or too dilute for lithium extraction. Furthermore, owing to the accelerated evaporation rate, it will have some utility on the offer when it comes to more humid climates. Beyond that, the team is also mulling over an idea which can see the technology facilitating lithium extraction from seawater.

“Our process is like putting an evaporation pond on a string, allowing us to obtain lithium harvests with a significantly reduced spatial footprint and with more precise control of the process,” said Sunxiang (Sean) Zheng, study co-author and former Andlinger Center Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow. “If scaled, we may open up new vistas for environmentally friendly lithium extraction.”

Another reason why we need to keep an eye on this technology is rooted in the researchers’ already-underway effort to build a second generation of the core setup that will enable greater efficiency, higher throughput, and more control over the crystallization process. To support the same, the team now has access to Princeton’s Intellectual Property (IP) Accelerator Fund.