Co-production of geothermal energy and lithium from geothermal waters

Researchers and commercial operators have long been looking into new unconventional lithium sources, since the ever-growing demand for lithium has become a top priority for many countries including Germany. The co-production of geothermal energy and lithium from geothermal brines could provide means for the development of new environmentally friendly lithium production techniques. However, if such unconventional sources could meet Germanys domestic demand under geological, technical, ecological and economic aspects is unclear. This is one of the objectives of the recently initiated Li-Fluids project. Here we present some of the preliminary results, focusing on lithium distributions in deep thermal waters and the assessment of the economic and technical criteria within the framework of an utility analysis.