UnLimited Newsletter #3 | December 2021

Sustainable Geothermal Lithium Triangle in the Upper Rhine Graben

Currently, the co-production of lithium from deep geothermal plants is being discussed worldwide and has already been implemented locally on a pilot basis. Especially in the field of electro vehicles, the demand for lithium is increasing rapidly. In Europe, there are well identified exploitable resources for lithium in the Upper Rhine Graben from Alsace in France to Germany near Mannheim where the deep geothermal brines reveal lithium contents up to 200 mg/L.

In particular, the geothermal sites in Landau, Bruchsal, and Soultz-sous-Forêts indicate a sustainable lithium source in the subsurface, as they show constant lithium contents for more than 10 years of plant operation, forming the sustainable geothermal lithium triangle in the Upper Rhine Graben. The Insheim and Rittershoffen geothermal sites are also part of this region.

More information about geothermal lithium in the Upper Rhine Graben can be found in here.

Successful UnLimited participation at GGC 2021

On December 01, 2021, an information exchange on the topic of geothermal lithium took place within the framework of the German Geothermal Congress GGC 2021.

In addition to various presentations, including the presentation of the German Raw Materials Agency on the current market situation of the battery raw material lithium, two partners of the UnLimited team were also present as speakers: EnBW presented the current project work in its talk "Lithium for batteries from the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany - The joint project UnLimited". In the presentation "Methoden der direkten Lithiumextraktion aus Thermalwasser", Hydrosion gave an overview of the common DLE processes and what requirements are placed on them by deep geothermal energy.

The presentations are available for download as PDF:

GGC 2021 - Hydrosion GmbH

GGC 2021 - EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG

Lithium products: Different types of lithium

Pure lithium is very reactive in air. It is therefore produced and processed in the form of various lithium salts. Lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide dominate here, but also lithium chloride. Due to the different densities of these compounds, the term "lithium carbonate equivalent" (LCE) was introduced for better comparability. The corresponding conversion factors can be found here.

Since 2019, the use of lithium hydroxide in the solid-state synthesis of cathode materials has been preferred, as it enables rapid and complete synthesis at lower temperatures. This improves the performance and lifetime of a lithium-ion battery. For these applications, the highest purity of lithium salts of at least 99.5% (battery grade) is required.

UnLimited meets Li+Fluids

BGR is coordinating an interdisciplinary research network to develop the basis for a raw material strategy for lithium extraction from thermal water in Germany. The client of the "Li+Fluids" project is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). 

In addition to the BGR, the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Infrastructure and Geothermal Energy (IEG) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology (UMSICHT) belong to the research association. Over the next three years, the project partners will jointly develop decision-making aids for the planning and expansion of geothermal sites that take into account possible lithium production in addition to electricity and heat generation.

In this context, cooperation with UnLimited is also planned, involving joint field trials at the Horstberg test site (NDB). 

UnLimited introduces itself: All information at a glance in the new project flyer

Read everything worth knowing about the investigations in the UnLimited project in the new flyer.

• How are the lithium recovery rates and the sustainability in the management of the lithium resource to be assessed?
• Which sorbents show high lithium affinity and effectiveness with good environmental compatibility at the same time? 
• To what extent does the lithium extraction process used meet site-specific conditions (hydrochemistry, operating parameters)?

The UnLimited team has been addressing these key questions since December 2020. 

The flyer can be downloaded as PDF here.

Lithium extraction in Germany: NANO reports

In its TV report of Sept. 10, 2021, the 3sat science magazine NANO reports on the possibilities of lithium extraction in Germany. Of particular importance: lithium extraction from hot deep waters. At the geothermal site in Bruchsal, 125 °C hot geothermal water is extracted from a depth of approximately 2,500 m. The water contains 150 to 200 milliliters of lithium.

Ongoing research work on lithium extraction in Bruchsal

Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the plant operator EnBW is working with partners in the UnLimited research project to investigate which process is most effective for extracting lithium from the thermal water.

One promising approach involves adsorption processes that use lithium-selective adsorbents. These include manganese oxide, through whose sieve structure more than 95% of the dissolved lithium can be selectively extracted from the thermal water, as shown by the laboratory tests conducted by the joint venture partner KIT.

The first prototype of the lithium extraction plant is to be constructed in Bruchsal at the turn of the year. Due to the high availability of the geothermal plant of over 8,000 operating hours per year, the amount of lithium extracted at the Bruchsal site is sufficient to produce around 20,000 car batteries, according to EnBW.

Demand in the e-mobility sector continues to rise

Last year, 2,000 tons of lithium were used for electric vehicles registered in Germany alone - and the trend is rising. Any regional and, above all, sustainable lithium extraction thus makes an important contribution to achieving the expansion plans for cell production capacity in Germany of up to 30,000 t of lithium in 2030. Thus, the extraction of lithium from hot deep waters is a promising component to achieve this objective.

Source: 3sat NANO