PREDICTING LITHIUM FLUXES FROM A HETEROGENOUS BRINE SOURCE: THE MARCELLUS SHALE

Currently, a group of raw materials critical for electrification of the U.S. automotive fleet and further modernization of electrical grids have sensitive supply chains that are subject to volatility. Lithium is included in this group of “critical minerals” and composes roughly 50% of an electric vehicle battery. Paradoxically, produced water from hydrocarbon extraction is a promising domestic source of lithium. However, limited data on compositional heterogeneity in formation water and production volumes add complexity to predicting lithium yields from this source. Herein, we discuss the utility of using a decade of public residual waste reports (chemical and production) from the prolific Marcellus Shale in identifying spatial trends in lithium fluxes from produced water. Furthermore, we show with numerical simulations, the maximum likely estimate of annual lithium production from the Marcellus could exceed 50% of the current domestic consumption. Lastly, data wrangling, transformation, and model development will be discussed.