Extracting Commercial-Grade Lithium from Marcellus Completions Comes Closer to Reality

A few short months ago I reported about the discovery that lithium, in commercial quantities, had been discovered in flow-back water from Marcellus completions in Pennsylvania. Interestingly enough, this is the only shale play which seems to contain such minerals. Lithium and other energy-relevant materials have undergone a surge in demand recently, primarily due to the necessity for use in the EV market for their batteries.

Metals such as lithium cannot be artificially produced or grown. They exist only when mined or recycled. Traditional extraction methods are far from eco-friendly. In fact, lithium, at present, poses a huge problem for the environment in both extraction and disposal. Traditional mining efforts are also incredibly expensive in addition to their environmental danger. Consequently, scientists have been searching for alternative methods to secure the product. It seems researchers at Virginia Tech University have solved that predicament.

Wencai Zhang, associate professor in the Department of Mining and Mineral Engineering, has just been awarded a Department of Energy grant worth over $1.8M, including $1.5M in federal shares. He claims to be able to safely remove lithium and other desirable earth metals from Marcellus flow-back waters. He purports to be able to reduce the high salinity levels found in such and remove pollutants while simultaneously extracting lithium for manufacturing purposes. His stated purpose is to “reduce the environmental consequences that can be associated with produced water”, all while salvaging “high-demand metals and minerals….which play an essential role in EV production and are present in virtually every battery worldwide”. Worthy goals from every perspective, no?

Although lithium has been identified as existing in Marcellus completions, a complete process has yet to be put forth which can produce battery-grade lithium. Enter Zhang, and his fellow researchers at Va. Tech. They claim to have developed a process for achieving this goal, using five major phases to produce such.

Phase One: Produced water treatment.
The first step begins by treating the produced water, aiming to remove any solid particles without causing loss of valuable minerals.

Phase Two: Rare earth elements and critical metals recovery.
Zhang has developed and patented technology which safely and economically recovers the lithium and any other desirable rare earth elements. In order to increase the concentration of the minerals in the flow-back water, Zhang uses a method known as staged precipitation, which concentrates critical elements in the solution so that they can efficiently be extracted for further refinement.

Phase Three: Direct lithium recovery.
Zhang plans to combine a specially designed ion-exchange system with a multi-stage solvent extraction process, modified appropriately to suit the treatment of produced water. This method, as proposed, is cost-effective and less energy intense than conventional methods of lithium extraction. Seems pretty promising so far, no?

Phase Four: Carbon mineralization.
Zhang and his team plan to use carbon mineralization to remove unwanted contaminants such as calcium and magnesium. They achieve this by adding carbon dioxide gas to a solution that is propagated by alkaline earth metals, allowing carbonate compounds, such as calcium carbonate, to form. Once formed, they simply settle to the bottom and are removed from the solution. The process of turning carbon dioxide and minerals into solid particles is the key to removing and filtering them out of the water.

Phase Five: Phyto-microbial treatment.
Zhang’s team, in the final project phase, reduces salinity levels and removes pollutants from the produced water by means of phyto-microbial treatment. This involves employing plants and their respective microbes to remove the contaminants found in the water. By selecting plants containing high-level purification characteristics, not normally found in the location of the produced water, the goal of removing contaminants is achieved, and cleaner water is the result.

These ideas are already being embraced by energy participants, including EQT, a leading natural gas producer with operations in Appalachia. Austin Elements, a leading battery-recycling company, will be essential to implement phase three of the process and will further develop the pre-pilot construction and techno-economics for the commercialization of the process. Phase five will be led by Colleen Doherty, associate professor of molecular and structural biochemistry at North Carolina State University. They have already assembled quite a team to implement the process.

Collaborating on such a project which impacts the environment by producing both cleaner energy and cleaner water, is essential to the overall success pursued by the team. The process will not only enrich PA economically, but will unlock additional environmental benefits for the entire Appalachian region.

Zhang admits that “my knowledge itself cannot solve this issue, so it’s crucial to the project that we have collaborators who have industry relevant knowledge that will make a substantial impact on the project and get the issue resolved”. He is a humble genius for sure.

The process will also be beneficial for shale gas companies who operate multiple sites in pursuit of oil or gas, lessening their dependance on centralized water facilities to collect and distribute water among various locations. Integration of these ideas will allow facilities to optimize their drilling efforts and results.

Interestingly enough, this water, once treated, can be used as an irrigation source for farmers throughout Appalachia, but especially in Pennsylvania. Removal of the minerals and reducing the salinity of the water, makes it a readily-available source for these purposes. Nothing like turning a nuisance into an asset, no?

Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have their own ideas about extracting lithium not only from Marcellus flow-back water, but from seawater, and groundwater as well. These efforts are headed-up by Chong Liu, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering and senior author of the scientific publication posted in Nature Communications magazine. Their process uses iron phosphate particles to efficiently pull lithium from targeted waters. Liu claims that his “method allows the efficient extraction of the mineral from very dilute liquids, which can greatly broaden the potential sources of lithium”. One way or another, lithium gathering and extraction seems poised to change dramatically, a very good thing in that original mining methods were ecologically dangerous from a number of different perspectives.

Liu’s process also uses iron phosphate to achieve its goals. They isolate lithium based on its electrochemical properties, using crystal lattices of olivine iron phosphate, which, because of its size, charge, and reactivity, draws lithium into the spaces in the olivine iron phosphate columns similar to how water is soaked up into porous items such as a sponge. Variation in olivine iron phosphate particles will cause variation when used to selectively isolate lithium over sodium, a common sub-surface mineral. Apparently, discovering which sizes and shapes of phosphate will be most effective is key.

Particles which are too large or too small, they discovered, allowed more sodium into the structures, an unwanted anomaly. Liu claims to have discovered the “sweet spot” where both the kinetics and the thermodynamics favored lithium over sodium. This research was key to determining that iron phosphate, while effective, has optimal results if used in appropriate particle size.

Just this week SLB, the world’s biggest oilfield services company, announced that it had developed and tested its own method of extracting lithium from brine, claiming to retain 96% of that contained in the flowback water. They gleefully referred to it as a “technical milestone” that produces the mineral faster than conventional methods while using less land, water, and chemicals. Their presentation concerning production of the battery metal on a commercial scale was tested at a Nevada facility about one-tenth the size of a commercial facility. They call their process “direct lithium extraction (DLE)” and claim to be able to produce the metal 500 times faster while using a smaller area than more conventional recovery methods. The company reported “high expectations that we’ll be doing front-end engineering” just next year with lithium equipment delivery and construction planned to begin in 2026.

All these techniques basically use some form of filters and membranes to strip out lithium from brine. They assuredly will be more ecologically friendly, while also providing to be much cheaper and faster than methods known until now. Further, they offer us suppliers right here in America, rather than China or South America. There seems to be no downside to their results.

Unless the government stops pushing EV’s, and subsidizing them for buyers, the demand for lithium will always be present. Electric vehicles simply cannot operate without lithium batteries. Much of our sophisticated military equipment is powered by lithium batteries as well, being used in drones, missiles, rockets, and other weaponry. Recent discoveries regarding sources and processing of lithium certainly make them more attractive, from both an economic and ecological perspective.

Lithium seems to be an integral part of America’s energy future, and the better we can mange all aspects of its use, the better we will all be for it. The genius and ingenuity of these scientists is nothing short of mind-boggling.

As my late friend  Arnold Thornton used to often say….”What (do) you think”?