Amanda Hall, P. Geoph

EVs, grid resiliency and renewable energy adoption all rely on lithium batteries; which means replacing fossil fuels relies on lithium extraction. However, current extraction methods are water-intensive and contaminate local water supplies. Geophysicist Amanda pushed her rockstar team of resource extraction experts to design a nanomaterial that identifies and extracts lithium from a solution without first needing to remove other impurities, a process that has proven to double yield, conserve 100% of the fresh water in the process and reduce chemical waste by 90%!
Her company’s technology has the potential to accelerate the adoption of new extraction standards by the mining industry, while also dropping lithium prices, thereby accelerating EV adoption and renewable energy storage, without sacrificing battery quality.
Even better, the process works extremely effectively when combined with geothermal wells – the hot brine gives up its lithium more efficiently with no loss in energy – and the lithium extraction provides added revenue to operators, making geothermal energy much cheaper to produce.