Lithium: An Energy Source in the Desert

(CBS)  Nothing grows in Chile's Salar de Atacama desert. It's the driest place on the planet, and one of the most remote, as CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports.

But to Tim McKenna, what's underground is paradise. He calls it, "the best place on earth."

McKenna's company produces lithium, the world's lightest metal. And lithium powers the batteries in the cell phones, Blackberrys and laptops that in turn power the world.

In Chile, the extraction process comes naturally: melting snow from the Andes Mountains runs into underground pools of salt water - or brine. That brine's pumped out. In a network of ponds, the desert sun evaporates out other salts, leaving lithium brine.

McKenna says, "the sun basically does all the work."

The brine's processed into white powder, lithium carbonate - a growing part of the world's energy future.

Two companies, one American, one Chilean, produce half of the world's lithium in the salt basin in Chile.

Mark Strassmann Blogs About this Report

As a source for battery power, demand for lithium is about to soar.

This fall, Mercedes will sell the first lithium powered plug-in car. At least six more carmakers plan their own models. Chevy's new Volt is expected to get 230 mpg off of just one charge.

In your cell phone or Blackberry battery, the lithium weighs one-tenth of an ounce. In a plug-in car, the battery's lithium weighs 20 pounds. In 10 years, lithium's price per pound has tripled to around $3, with only three major companies dominating the world's market in a half-dozen countries.

Chile, the largest supplier, has been called the "Saudi Arabia of lithium."

Energy analyst Ben Johnson said, "it looks very similar to an OPEC-style cartel. It's highly concentrated. The various producers are very secretive about their expansion plans and about their pricing movements."

Lithium producers deny that. Consumers will wait and see. But there's no denying, in the world's evolving energy science, lithium means power.

[dk110]

the bluewall battery that recharges itself for cars never needs gas oil wind sunshine solar nuclear lithium .this new techworks . bluewall also owns a gas devise for current and older cars that saves 60% of gasoline that means you go 60% farther on each gallon of gasoline than you do now . both devises are in use now. alot of people can not afford a new electric car ,so the gasoline devise will do the job in saveing gas the ggasoline devise called dk110 for 1 to 10 ratio for every gallon of gasoline also cutting over 50% of exhaust

[sepierce1950]

BOGUS TITLE PROVES POOR REPORTER RESEARCH AND EDITORIAL REVIEW

The title of this segment may grab emotional points, but it is 100% wrong. LITHIUM BASED BATTERIES ARE NOT A SOURCE OF ENERGY, ONLY A METHOD TO TEMPORARILY STORE ENERGY MADE SOMEWHER ELSE (like a power plant). Sorry folks, that's 7th grade science.

Lithium is an elemental metal that is one key component in Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer batteries. This is new battery chemistry that shows great potential for storing more charge per pound of chemicals that any other battery chemistry now in wide use. You got that part 100% correct. BUT IT IS NOT AN ENERGY SOURCE. Batteries have to be CHARGED UP before use. You correctly showed a VOLT car being plugged in to charge its batteries. But nowhere in your report did you note that the charging energy has to come from someplace. It is the Power Plant that is the source of the energy not the Lithium chemistry of the battery. So, instead of the car burning fuel, a power plant still has to generate the electricity to charge the battery. All the battery does is temporarily store the charge till used. The source of possible pollution moves from the car to the power plant. The details of power losses during transmitting/storing as well as fire hazards of the chemistry and SAFE disposal after use are too involved for this memo.

You also made a reference to a car getting a quite high miles-per-gallon figure. But you were not clear that such a figure only applies to Hybrids. A pure electric car (like the volt you highlighted) does not use gas, so a miles/gallon reference is meaningless.

On the bright side- there is a new and quite large source of the valuable Lithium element. And, this source is NOT in a country dominated by governments that may not be our best of friends.

But, one you get below the feel good surface of the issue, the source is still foreign. A Lithium Cartel can predicted to form. We are trading an oil cartel for a Lithium cartel... or worse! We will now have to deal with BOTH CARTELS. Why, because we'll still need the fuels for our power plants and Hybrids in order to charge our wonderful Lithium based batteries.

My wife and I watch CBS News almost every evening. We record it for later viewing if we can't. We also like your choice of anchorperson and the latest crop of fill-in anchors. Of late, it's editorial reviews that need improvement.

Thanks,
SEPIERCE1950

[jasperrdm]

Some of my friends use lipo (the li stands for lithum) batteries in their Rc planes. They have better recharge rate. More power for less space. Greater number of recharges than nicad or nimh. Hold the charge longer than other batteries.And they can be recycled. There is small fire risk if the battery is damaged. If I would go for lipo btty in my rc plane it would save weight. Currently I use 2 Nimb btty which weight 1 pd. A lipo would only weight 6 oz. Of course this would change the center of balance of plane. If you want to know more, hit one of RC groups chat/bullentin board sites and read up on battery power.

[rf35]

I'm not an expert on lithium batteries...what happens to the lithium? Is it destroyed, transformed, or somehow used up in the battery? Or can it be recycled indefinately? If it is rendered useless after a time, then it seems we are trading one non-renewable resource (oil) for another. Actually, oil IS a renewable resource. The problem is it takes millions of years to produce more.

[legacyabq]

Fascinating..

Next century's energy-barons..

[ToolMangler1]

The rape of the planet earth is just beginning. If we keep on like we are now, sometime in the distant future mwe will be the Planet destroyers (Watch or read The SciFi thriller "Independance day")

[TMI_Engineering]

If I am not mistaken, Chileans could use a break!

Let's see, $3.00/lb and it takes 20lbs. to build a Mercedes? That's $60.00, or less than half the cost of the lead acid battery, that didn't last as long, didn't store a fraction of the power, was far more toxic, weighed 3X as much that have been starting gasoline powered cars.

Recycling lithium is a real health issue. Not the Love Canal kind but since it is a drug (a kind of subtle poison) you don't want people being inadvertently exposed to lithium dust, contaminated water or consuming parts of batteries.

Airline pilots have voted to ban lithium batteries and all our lithium cells have to be shipped ground for several years so there is an issue in planes but by and large, this is a safe, green, profitable technology that redistributes what at the moment seems like a modest sum to a country that may put it to good use. Who would not like this????