Scientists at KIT achieve patent protection for minimally invasive technology to mine lithium in geothermal plants
https://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2020_054_new-process-enables-lithium-mining-in-germany.phpQuotes: "The plan is to extract lithium using a minimally invasive process from the deep waters in geothermal plants of the Upper Rhine Trench."
“As far as we know, there can be up to 200 milligrams per liter,” says geoscientist Dr. Jens Grimmer from the Institute of Applied Geosciences (AGW) of KIT: "If we consistently use this potential, we could cover a considerable part of the demand in Germany.”
"Together with his research colleague Dr. Florencia Saravia from the research unit of the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW) at the Engler-Bunte Institute (EBI) of KIT, Grimmer developed such a process and KIT now filed a patent application for it. “In a first step, the lithium ions are filtered out of the thermal water and in a second step, they are further concentrated until lithium can be precipitated as a salt,” says Grimmer."
Dr. Jens Grimmer is Lithium extraction expert by gec-co GmbH (
https://www.geo-t.de/de/unternehmen/).
https://vul.live.irmau.com/site/PDF/d9050364-205a-4744-b885-eb2127347da0/AcquisitionofWorldLeadingGeothermalEngineeringBusiness
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