OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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We create innovative technology and business that take saline waste and clean energy to harvest strategic metals, reducing reliance on foreign scarce metals & producing green hydrogen.
Our objective is to demonstrate a sustainable process for mining GH2 while creating value-added critical materials from seawater and is split into four thrusts. In total, the thrusts will design a process that mines and desalinates seawater. The clean water will then be electrolyzed in efficient membrane-based electrodes. The entire system will be guided by circular economy principles, resulting in a sustainable and value-optimal model.
Driven by the global goal of a net-zero emissions economy, green hydrogen (GH2) has emerged as a leading option to store energy. However, it is hampered by expensive production costs. Meanwhile, production of saline waste and its environmental damage is an over $1 million/100 gallon/minute problem. One dual remedy is to couple mineral (such as Lithium) desalination with cost-effective GH2 production via water splitting, creating a sustainable and circular process for extracting GH2 and value-added products from seawater. Current Li extraction technologies, however, are expensive, slow and environmentally damaging.
|
Source and Li+ Composition (ppm) |
||||
|
Clayton Valley |
Salton Sea |
Bonneville |
Searles |
Great Salt Lake |
| 163 | 152 | 57 | 54 | 18 |
The US’s vast Li brines are dilute and require concentrations of 5000-7000 ppm, so ~99% of our Li is imported and are controlled by foreign powers.
