At the end of the year, the members of the two BMWK-funded research projects Li+Fluids and UnLimited met for an online expert discussion. The event focused on the presentation of the current activities of the individual partners and an outlook for the coming year 2023.
The Li+Fluids joint project includes several sub-projects to precisely assess the economic, geological and technical conditions for lithium extraction from hydrothermal waters. These include a potential study for Germany, an evaluation of the extraction processes known to date, investigations of lithium release rates from deep rocks, and a utility analysis for the extraction of lithium from hydrothermal fluids.
In the UnLimited research project, the partners are developing and testing an extraction process for the co-production of lithium at the geothermal site in Bruchsal. A major focus of the investigation is the selection of particularly qualified lithium-selective adsorbents. This results in new monitoring focal points such as the investigation of the sorption behavior of natural radionuclides dissolved in thermal water in connection with the tested adsorbents. All results generated in the project are an integral part of a life cycle assessment.