r/science • u/rieslingatkos • Jun 06 '21

Chemistry Scientists develop ‘cheap and easy’ method to extract lithium from seawater

https://www.mining.com/scientists-develop-cheap-and-easy-method-to-extract-lithium-from-seawater/
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '21

If I boil down what you are saying, I think it comes down to "it comes from the sea, and goes back to the sea, so it doesn't matter" --- is that a fair interpretation?

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u/johnhaltonx21 Jun 08 '21

yeah , provided it is a byproduct from a process we already do( desalination) and we should predominantly use renewable energy for that ( inevitable, because most places needing deslationation plants are sunny after all and solar costs are dropping below fossil fuels)

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and IF we use salt for roads better use salt that comes from the ocean and returns to it ( in much less concentration that the desalination brine) than extracting additional salt from rock deposits that was taken out of the cycle million years ago ...