The NEWP Lab is pleased to share a new, Open Access publication in Desalination. Dr Cooper and coauthors Boreum Lee, Sohum K. Patel, Li Wang, Paul Westerhoff, Menachem Elimelech offer an evaluation of ion exchange and electrochemical intercalation pathways across diverse feedstocks in “Viability assessment of lithium recovery from unconventional saline water sources.” [1, see notes]
Highlights include:
- Process trains for lithium recovery from unconventional water sources are proposed
- These focus on scalable technologies which can meet future lithium demands
- They are evaluated for economic and environmental feasibility using TEA and LCA.
- Ion exchange resins can feasibly recover lithium from oil and gas produced waters.
In assessing the viability and scalability of waste water valorization systems, this research offers much to demonstrate why the somewhat dirty work of attending to industrial waste streams warrants further attention in conversation with other models for improving industrial sustainability. The NEWP Lab looks forwards to exploring beyond this contribution to further involve such unconventional water sources as vital and viable aspects of grid scale infrastructure changes to support global efforts aimed to reduce novel lithium mining and extraction and its associated environmental and social pressures [1].
Our group extends gratitude to the Elimelech Laboratory and Research Group at Yale (now based at Rice University) where this research was first conceptualized, and congratulates Dr. Cooper’s coauthors Boreum Lee, Sohum K. Patel, Li Wang, Paul Westerhoff, and Menachem Elimelech on an important publication!
Newp Lab 