Petra Schultheiß-Reimann
Moderation: Eva Wille
The largest deposits of lithium are found in the Andes of Latin America. The rare metal lithium has become increasingly important in recent decades because of the batteries in mobile electrical devices such as smartphones and laptops, and above all because of electric cars. On Earth, lithium occurs in so-called salars as brine and in ore deposits in the form of pegmatite. The brines are processed through water evaporation and precipitation, based on the different solubilities of the salts found in the lakes. The lithium carbonate obtained in technical grade can be packed in sacks, shipped and easily processed further. The most important application of lithium is the lithium-ion battery. Lithium itself is produced from lithium chloride using molten-salt electrolysis. Will lithium deposits be sufficient in the future? It is therefore important to develop technologies for recycling raw materials. There have now been some interesting developments; one from Evonik will be presented at the end.
