Portable electronics and electric cars both need a steady supply
of lithium, and while the world has plenty of it (at least for
the foreseeable future), hardly any is produced in the U.S. That
is about to change, as a California startup aims to produce
lithium from the waste product of another 21st century new-
energy technology: Geothermal power plants. Some types of
geothermal facilities use naturally occurring hot briny aquifers
to generate steam, which drives power plant turbines. This brine
contains lithium and other metal salts. A startup called Simbol
Materials has a proprietary process to strip out those salts and
refine them for resale, according to Technology Review. Most of
the world’s lithium is extracted from salt flats and brine pools
that are allowed to evaporate in the sun; this process would
just use the brine that has already been tapped for another
purpose. Simbol Materials aims to use brine from a 50-megawatt
geothermal plant near California’s Salton Sea, Tech Review says.
Currently, the br