A new method to unlock vast lithium stores
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly way to extract this critical mineral
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science
Demand for lithium is skyrocketing as factories across the world churn out electric vehicles and the massive batteries that make wind turbines and solar panels reliable sources of energy. Unfortunately, current methods for producing lithium are slow and require high-quality feedstocks that are found in relatively few locations on the planet. Ironically, the environmental costs are also significant: refining the mineral behind clean energy requires large amounts of land and pollutes water supplies that local communities depend on.
In a new paper, researchers from Columbia Engineering describe a new method for extracting lithium that could dramatically shorten processing time, unlock reserves that existing methods can’t tap, and reduce environmental impact. Their technique uses a temperature-sensitive solvent to extract lithium directly from the brines found in deposits across the world. Unlike the current technologies, this approach can efficiently extract lithium even when the mineral is found in very low concentrations and contaminated with similar materials.
The results, detailed in a paper published today in Joule, show that the innovation, called switchable solvent selective extraction, S3E (pronounced S three E), can extract lithium with strong selectivity: up to 10 times higher than for sodium, and 12 times higher than for potassium. The process also excludes magnesium, a common contaminant in lithium brines, by triggering a chemical precipitation step that separates it out.
Improving on Solar Evaporation
Roughly 40% of lithium production begins with a salty brine that’s found in large reservoirs that form under deserts. Nearly all of that lithium is extracted using a technique called solar evaporation, where the brine is pumped into sprawling ponds that bake under the desert sun — for up to two years — until enough water evaporates. This is only feasible in dry, flat regions with vast amounts of land, such as Chile’s Atacama Desert or parts of Nevada. It also consumes large volumes of water in places that can scarcely afford it.
“There’s no way solar evaporation alone can match future demand,” said Ngai Yin Yip, La Von Duddleson Krumb Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University. “And there are promising lithium-rich brines, like those in California’s Salton Sea, where this method simply can’t be used at all.”
Unlike conventional lithium recovery methods, S3E doesn't rely on binding chemicals or extensive postprocessing. Instead, the process exploits the way lithium ions interact with water molecules in a solvent system that changes its behavior based on temperature. At room temperature, the solvent pulls lithium and water from the brine. When heated, it releases the lithium, along with water, into a purified stream and regenerates itself for reuse.
An Approach with Tremendous Potential
In lab tests using synthetic brines modeled on the Salton Sea, a geothermal region in Southern California estimated to hold enough lithium to supply more than 375 million EV batteries, the system recovered nearly 40% of the lithium over just four cycles with the same solvent batch. That suggests a viable path toward continuous operation.
“This is a new way to do direct lithium extraction,” said Yip. “It’s fast, selective, and easy to scale. And it can be powered by low-grade heat from waste sources or solar collectors.”
The team emphasized that this is a proof-of-concept study. The system hasn’t yet been optimized for yield or efficiency. But even in this early form, S3E appears promising enough to offer an alternative to evaporation ponds and hard-rock mining, the two approaches that dominate the lithium supply chain today and come with steep tradeoffs.
As the global clean energy transition picks up speed, technologies like S3E could play a crucial role in keeping it on track—by making it possible to extract lithium faster, more cleanly, and from more places than ever before.
“We talk about green energy all the time,” said Yip. “But we rarely talk about how dirty some of the supply chains are. If we want a truly sustainable transition, we need cleaner ways to get the materials it depends on. This is one step in that direction.”
Interested parties seeking collaboration, licensing, or application of the technology may express their interest here.
Journal
Joule
Article Title
A New Method to Unlock Vast Lithium Stores
Article Publication Date
21-Jan-2026
Lithium study yields insights in the fight against HIV
Study in human cells finds low-cost drug keeps virus dormant through an unexpected pathway, pointing the way to new treatments
McGill University
Lithium, a widely used treatment for bipolar disorder and other mood disorders, has shown early promise in suppressing HIV, McGill University researchers report.
A new study published in iScience found lithium can prevent infected cells from reactivating, and that it does so through an unexpected biological mechanism.
The findings point toward future treatments designed to mimic lithium’s beneficial effects while avoiding its broader impacts on the body.
“One major thrust in HIV cure research is asking whether existing drugs can be repurposed. Because lithium is inexpensive and already approved for other uses, it offers a faster starting point than developing a new drug from scratch,” said senior author Andrew Mouland, Professor in McGill’s Department of Medicine and Head of the HIV-1 RNA Trafficking Laboratory at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research.
The results do not mean people with HIV should take lithium, he said. The psychoactive drug can cause significant side effects and has not yet been tested in humans as an HIV treatment.
A step toward a ‘functional cure’
An estimated 40.8 million people around the world were living with HIV in 2024. Even with effective antiretroviral therapy, the virus can remain hidden in immune cells and rebound if daily treatment stops.
A “functional cure” aims to overcome this challenge. Rather than eliminating the virus entirely, the goal is to keep HIV dormant, so it cannot restart infection, potentially reducing the need for continuous daily medication.
“In our experiments, lithium directly suppressed HIV reactivation in lab-grown human cells, something that had not been clearly demonstrated before,” said first author Ana-Luiza Abdalla, who conducted the work as a PhD student at McGill and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Montreal Neurological Institute.
As well, the team gained new insights into the mechanism involved.
Earlier research suggested lithium might work by activating autophagy, the cell’s recycling system. Because many drugs studied in HIV cure research affect this pathway, scientists assumed autophagy was responsible for keeping the virus dormant.
This study challenges that assumption, made possible by a fluorescence-based test developed by University of Manitoba researcher Thomas Murooka that allows scientists to distinguish between dormant and active virus in cells.
“What surprised us was that the effect persisted even when we disrupted autophagy,” Abdalla said. “That suggests other pathways are involved, possibly ones HIV relies on to restart.”
About the study
“Lithium attenuates HIV-1 latency reversal in an autophagy-independent way” by Ana-Luiza Abdalla, Gabriel Guajardo-Contreras, Meijuan Niu, Thomas Murooka and Andrew J. Mouland was published in iScience. Funding was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Journal
iScience
Method of Research
Experimental study
Article Title
Lithium attenuates HIV-1 latency reversal in an autophagy-independent way
