They claim that their approach, which uses iron-based nanoparticles, could supply a significant portion of the lithium required for batteries as the United States switches to electric vehicles, displacing the present environmentally destructive ways of mining and processing lithium.

Lithium is a critical element as the Earth faces rapid climate change. Battery power is key to most nations' plans to wean their economies off the fossil fuel use that is overheating the planet.

Magnetic nanoparticles are used in a technology developed by the US Department of Energy lab to trap lithium dissolved in several subsurface aquifers. Iron oxide is at the core of the small particles, which have a synthetic outer shell that attracts and holds lithium ions.

The plan is to harvest lithium from the hot, briny groundwater used by geothermal power plants and the salty water that comes to the surface as a byproduct of oil and gas drilling.

Lithium will likely become an additional revenue stream for energy producers and help to lower the cost of the energy they produce. While improving the economics of a clean energy source like geothermal power could help the transition to a climate-friendly economy, doing so for oil and gas production could have the opposite effect.

Scientists are working to perfect the nano-particles so they only capture lithium, and not other elements like sodium found in the brine. The United States currently imports half of its lithium, and limited supplies could delay efforts to adopt clean electricity as its main energy source.

In 2021, scientists estimated that collecting just 25% of the lithium in water produced during oil and gas extraction could double the world’s current supply of lithium.

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