Knierim Katherine J, Blondes Madalyn S, Masterson Andrew, Freeman Philip, McDevitt Bonnie, Herzberg Amanda, Li Peng, Mills Ciara, Doolan Colin, Jubb Aaron M, Ausbrooks Scott M, Chenault Jessica
US Geological Survey, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
US Geological Survey, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, Reston, VA, USA.
Sci Adv. 2024 Sep 27;10(39):eadp8149. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adp8149.
Global demand for lithium, the primary component of lithium-ion batteries, greatly exceeds known supplies, and this imbalance is expected to increase as the world transitions away from fossil fuel energy sources. High concentrations of lithium in brines have been observed in the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas (>400 milligrams per liter). We used published and newly collected brine lithium concentration data to train a random forest machine-learning model using geologic, geochemical, and temperature explanatory variables and create a map of predicted lithium concentrations in Smackover Formation brines across southern Arkansas. Using these predicted lithium maps with reservoir parameters and geologic information, we calculated that there are 5.1 to 19 million tons of lithium in Smackover Formation brines in southern Arkansas, which represents 35 to 136% of the current US lithium resource estimate. Based on these calculations, in 2022, 5000 tons of dissolved lithium were brought to the surface within brines as waste streams of the oil, gas, and bromine industries.
全球对锂离子电池的主要成分锂的需求远远超过已知供应量，随着世界从化石燃料能源转型，这种不平衡预计还会加剧。在阿肯色州南部的斯马克沃夫地层中，已观测到卤水中锂的高浓度（超过每升400毫克）。我们利用已发表的和新收集的卤水锂浓度数据，使用地质、地球化学和温度解释变量训练了一个随机森林机器学习模型，并绘制了阿肯色州南部斯马克沃夫地层卤水锂浓度预测图。结合这些预测锂含量图、储层参数和地质信息，我们计算出阿肯色州南部斯马克沃夫地层卤水中锂含量为510万至1900万吨，占美国当前锂资源估计量的35%至136%。基于这些计算，2022年，作为石油、天然气和溴工业的废物流，有5000吨溶解锂随卤水被带到地表。
