Large lithium stockpile discovered in Belgium.
In the Kempen, a company called Hita has discovered a significant amount of Lithium in an accident. A later study shows that this amounts to approximately 100 milligrams of lithium per liter of water. Which is a nice amount. The total number can provide 125,000 batteries per year. Which results in 5000 tons by 2050.
With geothermal energy, warm water is pumped up from deep ground layers to heat houses, for example. It is then injected back into the soil. In principle, the lithium could be removed from the water before it is returned.
Since we will need an enormous amount of Lithium in the coming years for the production of all kinds of batteries, this can only be a positive finding. The big advantage also comes from extracting this raw material. This is often extracted via mines and that has a negative impact on the environment. But through geothermal energy we can quickly conclude that the ecological impact is up to 10 times lower. And this because it can be extracted while we pump water through the geothermal process. The extracted material can then simply be put back into the ground.
