Fracturing wastewater: a surprising source of lithium for green energy

Is fracking inadvertently bringing us another green energy boost? Ironically, the much-maligned technology has been making headlines in recent months not just for its negative environmental externalities, but also for its potential to help save planet. This year, hydraulic fracturing technology used to extract oil and gas has attracted much attention for its ability to use potentially unlimited geothermal energy sources anywhere in the United States. Now experts say it could provide a key source of lithium to help power and stabilize renewable energy grids and make batteries for electric vehicles.

Wastewater produced by the fracking industry could produce nearly half of the United States’ lithium needs, according to the data. original research from a team of scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. There are particularly strong concentrations of lithium in wastewater produced in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, but it could be present in commercially viable concentrations in other sources of the 2.8 billion liters of produced water that the nation’s fracking industry creates in every day.

“We found … that the water produced by the Marcellus has comparable amounts of lithium to that of brine ponds in Chile, which is the global, dominant source of lithium in the world,” said Justin Mackey, lead author of the research study and former natural. gas consultant in a interview with the WHYY News Climate Desk. “And more importantly, it has lithium concentrations comparable to the Arkansas Smackover (formation) and other formations that are being actively targeted for brine mining in the US”

This “produced water” is a byproduct of the hydraulic fracturing process, which works by drilling deep into the earth and injecting water into wells to push natural gas to the surface. With that gas released comes a lot of water that’s been sitting in that shale formation for hundreds of thousands of years, where it’s turned into an extremely salty brine that contains a lot of toxins like benzene, toluene , heavy and even naturally occurring metals. radioactive substances. And apparently a lot of lithium in some cases.

The ability to obtain commercially significant amounts of lithium from fracking wastewater would be a huge win for the cottage clean energy industry. Lithium is already in huge demand due to the global decarbonisation movement and is expected to skyrocket in the coming years. Lithium demand for battery manufacturing alone is expected to grow tenfold between 2020 and 2030, according to appraisal from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). One net-zero scenario250,000 to 450,000 tonnes of lithium will be needed by 2030. This is an incredible increase in production – as the entire world produced only 105 tonnes in 2021.

This increase in demand will put enormous geopolitical power in the hands of the nations that control the global supply of lithium, and right now that overwhelmingly means China. From 2022China alone controlled nearly ten percent of global lithium reserves and 72 percent of lithium refining capacity. The United States did a late push to become competitive in the lithium markets, but still has only one operational lithium plant in the entire country—the Silver Peak facility in Nevada—and is struggling to support himself lithium trade agreements with other countries.

While the United States has made inroads into increasing domestic lithium production, lithium mining is a highly controversial and often devastating to the environment effort. “The expansion of America’s lithium industry (…) is highly controversial because mining can destroy natural environments, leach toxic chemicals and encroach on sacred indigenous land,” Science Alert reports.

Therefore, extracting lithium from the produced water from existing fracking operations could be a win for the United States. It could help the country regain its geopolitical footing in the global race for clean energy, catalyze the nation’s decarbonization efforts and mitigate the negative effects of lithium production. There is some concern that such a practice would extend the life of fracking operations and greenwash what is arguably a high-emitting and environmentally hazardous energy sector. But for now, wastewater is an indisputable fact of our energy industry – why waste it?

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

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