A research team from Monash University has patented a new technology that extracts lithium from solid salt mixtures rather than liquid brines.
A research team from Monash University has patented a new technology that extracts lithium from solid salt mixtures rather than liquid brine s. This method provides a faster, highly efficient, and eco-friendly alternative to standard lithium extraction.
The process works by shifting the focus from liquid brine to a dried, solid salt crust. Interestingly, it achieved a lithium recovery of around 95 percent.
“This work shows that lithium can be efficiently separated from complex salt mixtures using simple organic solvents, without relying on freshwater or highly chemical-intensive processes,” said Dr. Zhikao Li, one of the study authors. this timeline. However, these introduce a severe environmental tradeoff by consuming unsustainable volumes of scarce freshwater in the world’s absolute driest regions.
This combination of low recovery rates, prolonged processing delays, and high water demand creates a massive issue for a global supply chain under pressure to scale sustainably. Rather than pulling lithium from liquid brine, this new approach works backward by targeting the solid salt crust left behind. Once the brine has dried, engineers wash the resulting salt mixture with common industrial solvents such as ethanol and acetone.
As lithium dissolves incredibly well in these organic liquids while other coexisting salts do not, the solvents act like a precise chemical magnet and slide the lithium away from impurities. This clever use ofTo make the system fully sustainable, the researchers paired the solvent wash with advanced “interfacial solar evaporation” technology. Using only natural sunlight, the system traps heat at the surface of the liquid. This accelerates the extraction process and recovers the solvent in its pure form.
The team successfully recovered and recycled more than 99% of the ethanol and acetone used. Battery-grade material becomes much easier to produce because this new method naturally rejects contaminants during the initial solvent wash. This yields exceptionally high-purity lithium right from the start and streamlines the entire manufacturing pipeline. Recognizing its commercial potential, the research team has filed a patent application for this breakthrough technology.
Mrigakshi is a science journalist who enjoys writing about space exploration, biology, and technological innovations. Her work has been featured in well-known publications including Nature India, Supercluster, The Weather Channel and Astronomy magazine. If you have pitches in mind, please do not hesitate to email her.
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