Environmental Impacts on Global Lithium Brine Extraction

Abstract

As lithium demand increases rapidly due to the emergence of electric vehicles, optimizing global lithium supply will be of great importance. 59% of global lithium deposits come from continental-brines. The main method of lithium extraction from these brines is via solar evaporation. Faster evaporation rates in better lithium production and can help increase global supply of lithium. The evaporation rate is influenced by five environmental factors: temperature, solar radiation, relative humidity, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure. The evaporation rate for 21 global continental lithium-brine deposits were calculated and averaged monthly and hourly to show seasonal and 24-hour trends. Chile was determined to be the most optimal environment for lithium extraction via solar radiation while China was the least optimal. Of the five environmental factors, solar radiation was the most influential, contributing an average of 55.45% to the overall evaporation rate.