Oct 5 (Reuters) – In a meeting in February with top mining executives, President Joe Biden set an aggressive goal for the United States to produce more minerals for the electric car revolution in order to respect the environment.
A “big part” of those efforts, the president said, was Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s ( BRKa.N ) plan to extract lithium from geothermal brines circulating under California’s Salton Sea, something that has never been done before. do.
The project aimed to help develop a new way to produce lithium – a key component of EV batteries – in the US while avoiding the controversies that come with building mines that are often unpopular with local communities. .
‘NASTY, HOT SOUP’
Berkshire operates several hydroelectric plants near the Salton Sea, about 160 miles (258 km) southeast of Los Angeles, where it heats steam from underground at temperatures of about 700°F (371°C). to spin turbines that produce electricity. To see also : A White House climate official sanctioned by a key scientific institution.
In theory, Berkshire’s plan made sense. An additional processing step technology could be attached to one of the existing plants to extract the lithium before injecting the brine back underground. That would avoid the need for open pit mines or large evaporation ponds, the two most popular but environmentally difficult methods of producing lithium.
In the beginning, Berkshire’s competition was twofold. First, it needed to separate the lithium from the hot brine using an unproven technology known commercially as Direct Lithium Extraction, or DLE. Then she wanted to develop a new technology to convert that lithium into lithium hydroxide.
For the first challenge, the California Energy Commission gave Berkshire a $6 million grant in May 2020. As part of its agreement with the state, Berkshire said it would use DLE technology from another company, AquaMin Lithium and Water Recovery Inc.
But corroded equipment and clogged pipes with superhot brine are hampering the extraction operation, according to three sources with direct knowledge. “I think Berkshire has an insurmountable problem,” said one of the sources, who described the facility as struggling to get even basic equipment to work because of the extreme heat. of geothermal brines.
AquaMin, a privately held division of Conductive Energy Inc, did not respond to requests for comment. The California Energy Commission (CEC) said its investment in Berkshire was not affected by the loss of the Energy Department grant.
The region’s oil is full of lithium, calcium, sodium and other minerals that are difficult to separate, said Corby Anderson, a mineralogist at the Colorado School of Mines.
“It’s a hot, nasty soup that’s sometimes acidic,” said Anderson, who was not involved in the Berkshire project.
The US Department of Energy grant focused on the second challenge, turning the extracted lithium into lithium hydroxide.
BMW ( BMWG.DE ) and other car makers prefer carbonated hydroxide because it allows batteries to hold more power.
“Batteries have to last and therefore they have to last” with hydroxide, Eric Smith, Berkshire’s vice president of lithium development, said during a July 2021 presentation to Salton Sea region officials.
But the formation of hydroxide requires additional processing involving crystallizers and other specialized equipment. If and when Berkshire is able to extract lithium from the Salton Sea brine, making the carbonate will be less difficult and less expensive than making the hydroxide.
A day after Biden announced the Berkshire project, the company specifically asked the Department of Energy to change the scope of the grant and allow it to make carbonate instead of hydroxide, according to emails obtained by Reuters through a records request. the public.
The Energy Department declined, saying that would be a “significant departure” from the original proposal and would be unfair to other grant applicants.
Within weeks the grant was revoked.
Emails show that the Energy Department warned Berkshire in December 2021 — two months before Biden’s mining table — that talks over the terms of the grant had reached “an impasse.”
Although the White House was aware that negotiations were underway when it hosted Berkshire, it was not aware of the complicated warning, according to the administration official.
“We’re still hopeful and optimistic that (Berkshire’s) technology will emerge and we think there’s a big opportunity if and when it does,” the official said.
Berkshire’s website now says it aims to open a lithium carbon pilot plant next spring.
Berkshire’s decision not to make hydroxide at the Salton Sea — and to forego federal funding for that — indicates it likely faced more difficult technical challenges than expected, four analysts told Reuters.
“It indicates to me that they have real hurdles in their way to commercial lithium production,” said Chris Berry, an independent consultant to the lithium industry who is not involved in the Berkshire project. .
Privately held Thermal Resources and EnergySource Mining LLC are also trying to extract lithium from Salton Sea brines with different DLE technologies for eventual use in EV batteries, but none are in commercial production. .
“The magic here is understandable,” said Anderson, the Colorado professor. “It’s not as easy as people make it out to be.”
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Reported by Ernest Scheyder in Houston; additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Peter Henderson and Claudia Parsons
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Cover the future of energy and transportation including electric vehicles and battery technology, with a focus on lithium, copper, cobalt, rare earths and other minerals, policy, politics, etc. It previously covered oil and natural gas, including life in the North. Dakota’s Bakken for shale oil.
