By Ernest Scheyder
In a February assembly with mining executives, President Joe Biden laid out an aggressive objective for the United States to provide extra of its personal minerals for the electrical automobile revolution in ways in which revered the atmosphere.
A “big part” of these efforts, the president stated, was Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s plan to filter lithium from superhot geothermal brines swirling beneath California’s Salton Sea, one thing that had by no means been finished earlier than.
The undertaking aimed to assist usher in a brand new means of manufacturing lithium – a key constituent of EV batteries – within the United States whereas avoiding the controversies that include constructing mines which can be usually unpopular with native communities.
The U.S. Department of Energy had chosen Berkshire the day Biden was inaugurated in January 2021 for a $14.9 million grant to check how Salton Sea-region lithium may very well be used to make lithium hydroxide, a specialised sort of the metallic that produces extra environment friendly and longer-lasting EV batteries.
“We’re going to set America up to lead the world by building a clean energy economy and a clean energy future,” Biden stated on the February occasion, which was billed as a essential minerals roundtable.
Alicia Knapp, chief govt of Berkshire’s BHE Renewables division, informed Biden that Berkshire was “working to secure the most abundant source of lithium in the United States using the world’s most environmentally friendly technology.”
Two weeks later, although, the Energy Department rescinded the grant, in response to emails and paperwork obtained by Reuters, after Berkshire requested what the Energy Department referred to as a “material change” to its lithium undertaking. The withdrawal of the grant has not been beforehand reported.
While the sum of cash was comparatively small for the mining world and the Salton Sea grant was for a pilot undertaking, the story of Berkshire’s tangle with Washington exhibits how Biden’s plan to shift the financial system away from fossil fuels faces some vital technical and enterprise challenges.
Thirteen months of negotiations between the corporate and the federal government, which Reuters is reporting for the primary time, stalled as Berkshire sought management over patents, adjustments to know-how, and whether or not it might someday promote the lithium enterprise, even after the federal government helped construct it, the emails and paperwork present.
Asked concerning the grant withdrawal, a Biden administration official stated there are “inherent risks” in funding analysis and improvement initiatives, and famous that a number of corporations together with Berkshire are nonetheless engaged on U.S. lithium initiatives.
The Energy Department’s March 9, 2022, letter telling Berkshire it was rescinding the grant stated the transfer was “the result of a mutual decision” and wouldn’t bar Berkshire from making use of for future federal funding.
Berkshire, nonetheless, is going through issues extracting lithium from Salton Sea geothermal brines, in response to three sources with direct information of the operation who declined to be recognized in order to not jeopardize future relationships with the corporate.
In a press release to Reuters, Berkshire stated it had deliberate to develop “a first-of-its-kind demonstration plant to produce lithium hydroxide” however “subsequently decided to use a commercially proven process” to provide lithium carbonate as an alternative.
“This change in technology increases the likelihood of success and accelerates the speed to market,” Berkshire spokesperson Dan Winters stated. The firm declined to remark for different components of this story.
‘NASTY, HOT SOUP’
Berkshire operates a number of energy vegetation close to the Salton Sea, roughly 160 miles (258 km) southeast of Los Angeles, the place it flashes steam off brines introduced from deep underground at temperatures round 700°F (371°C) to spin generators that produce electrical energy.
In concept, Berkshire’s plan made sense. Technology for an additional processing step may very well be related to one of many present vegetation to extract lithium earlier than the brine is reinjected underground. That would keep away from the necessity for open-pit mines or massive evaporation ponds, the 2 most-common however environmentally difficult methods to extract lithium.
From the beginning, Berkshire’s problem was twofold. First, it wanted to separate lithium from that scorching brine utilizing a commercially unproven class of know-how referred to as Direct Lithium Extraction, or DLE. Then it aimed to develop new know-how to course of that lithium into lithium hydroxide.
For the primary problem, the California Energy Commission gave Berkshire a $6 million grant in May 2020. As a part of its settlement with the state, Berkshire stated it will use DLE know-how from one other firm, AquaMin Lithium and Water Recovery Inc.
But corroded tools and clogged pipes from the superhot brine are plaguing the extraction operation, in response to the three sources with direct information. “I think Berkshire has an unsolvable problem,” stated one supply, who described the ability struggling to get even probably the most primary processing tools to work because of the excessive warmth of the geothermal brines.
AquaMin, a division of privately held Conductive Energy Inc, didn’t reply to requests for remark. The California Energy Commission (CEC) stated its funding for Berkshire was not affected by the lack of the Energy Department grant.
The area’s brine teems with lithium, calcium, sodium and different minerals which can be very advanced to separate, stated Corby Anderson, who teaches metallurgy on the Colorado School of Mines.
“It’s just a nasty, hot soup that’s sometimes acidic,” stated Anderson, who is just not concerned in Berkshire’s undertaking.
The U.S. Department of Energy grant was centered on the second problem, turning the extracted lithium into lithium hydroxide.
BMW and another automakers favor hydroxide over carbonate as a result of it permits batteries to carry extra energy.
“Batteries should last longer and therefore be more sustainable” with hydroxide, Eric Smith, Berkshire’s vp of lithium improvement, stated throughout a July 2021 presentation to Salton Sea-region officers.
But making hydroxide requires additional processing involving crystallizers and different specialised tools. If and when Berkshire is ready to extract the lithium from the Salton Sea brine, making carbonate could be simpler and costly than making hydroxide.
The day after Biden touted Berkshire’s undertaking, the corporate privately requested the Energy Department to alter the grant’s scope and let it make carbonate as an alternative of hydroxide, in response to the emails obtained by Reuters via a public information request.
The Energy Department declined, saying that might be a “substantial departure” from the unique proposal and could be unfair to others who utilized for the grant.
Within weeks the grant was rescinded.
Emails present the Energy Department had warned Berkshire in December 2021 – two months earlier than Biden’s minerals roundtable – that talks on grant phrases had reached an “impasse.”
While the White House was conscious negotiations had been ongoing when it hosted Berkshire, it didn’t know concerning the deadlock warning, in response to the administration official.
“We remain optimistic and hopeful that (Berkshire’s) technology pans out and think there’s great opportunity if and when it does,” the official stated.
Berkshire’s web site now says it goals to open a lithium carbonate pilot plant subsequent spring.
Berkshire’s choice to not make hydroxide from the Salton Sea – and to forego the federal funding for that – signifies it possible confronted much more advanced technical challenges than it anticipated, 4 analysts informed Reuters.
“It’s an indication to me that they have some real challenges standing in their path to commercial lithium production,” stated Chris Berry, an unbiased lithium trade advisor who is just not concerned in Berkshire’s undertaking
Privately held Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd and EnergySource Minerals LLC are additionally making an attempt to extract lithium from Salton Sea brines with totally different DLE know-how for eventual use in EV batteries, however neither are at industrial manufacturing.
“The magic here is elusive,” stated Anderson, the Colorado professor. “It’s not as easy as people portray it to be.”
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Source: auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com