One of Earth’s most unique geological formations is volcanoes, as they can be located either on land or underwater. They are even found on other planets. These formations come in all shapes and sizes, varying from shields to composites and cinder cones. When they erupt, they spew lava. As more and more of the world’s volcanoes are waking, they are also erupting pure technology. That’s right, within these unique geological formations, there are valuable elements that could revolutionize the renewable industry.
The renewable energy industry faces numerous challenges
The world is gradually transitioning to renewable energy sources as alternatives to burning fossil fuels. This transition forms part of a greater goal to reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Unfortunately, the renewable technologies that we rely on to harness energy from renewable sources are not as environmentally friendly as we want to believe.
According to the SPIE Digital Library, renewable energy technology needs particular elements for production, and obtaining these elements has proven to be challenging. Without these elements, we cannot address other challenges that these technologies face, which are intermittency and storage. For example, solar panels and wind turbines are both dependent on specific weather conditions, which result in intermittency in power supply.
To solve the intermittency, efficient storage solutions are required, but manufacturing safe and reliable storage capacity will also require a vast amount of crucial elements. The traditional approaches to obtaining these elements are invasive, but experts believe there is another untapped source, as per New Atlas.
The answer could be within volcanoes
While many experts have turned to the solid remains of ancient volcanic activities for these crucial elements, researchers from Oxford University believe the answer to our problems lies within the liquid form found in volcanoes. This means that volcanoes could truly potentially ‘erupt technology.’ The researchers believe that the liquid forms, or brines, could contain millions of tonnes of valuable metals.
These valuable metals include copper, zinc, gold, silver, and most importantly, lithium. Should this be proven true, we could be saying goodbye to traditional mining and its negative impact on the environment. According to Jon Blundy, corresponding author of the research study:
“Active volcanoes around the world discharge to the atmosphere prodigious quantities of valuable metals. Some of this metal endowment does not reach the surface, but becomes trapped as fluids in hot rocks at around 2 km (1.2 miles) depth. Green mining represents a novel way to extract both the metal-bearing fluids and geothermal power, in a way that dramatically reduces the environmental impact of conventional mining.”
Mining volcanoes has many advantages
The researchers found that metal-rich brines are located underneath volcanoes after drilling cores in Italy, Indonesia, Mexico, and Montserrat. After comparing their findings with other geophysical surveys, it was confirmed that these deposits can potentially be found under nearly every active and dormant volcano worldwide.
Metal extraction from brines:
- Is more cost-effective than solid ore processing
- Is more energy efficient
- Produces less waste
- Can be powered by the area’s natural geothermal energy
Lithium for ion batteries is crucial for efficient energy storage and release to ensure grid stability and a reliable power supply. It is also used as a lubricant in wind turbines and thus plays a significant role in the renewable energy transition. However, mining the brines underneath volcanoes is not without risk, as drilling could result in a volcanic eruption. Improved equipment will also be required to extract these metals from the brine, as it is extremely corrosive and has temperatures as high as 450 °C. So, while volcanoes are a great untapped source for these metals, even the researchers admit “it’s still very early days.”