Original Title 原标题 Will California’s Salton Sea Become the ‘Saudi Arabia of Lithium’?
加利福尼亚州索尔顿海会成为“锂的沙特阿拉伯”吗？
The now-highly polluted Salton Sea, in California, could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” experts say due to its high concentration of the metal.
Global demand for lithium batteries is set to jump five-fold by 2030, and the world could face a shortage of “white gold” as soon as 2025.
到2030年，全球对锂电池的需求将翻五翻，而最快到2025年，世界将面临的锂短缺。
The California Energy Commission calls it “Lithium Valley,” and projected in 2020 that it could supply an estimated 600,000 tons per year with a value of $7.2 billion.
加州能源委员会称索尔顿海为“锂谷”，2020年启动的项目可能每年提供60万吨锂，价值达72亿美元。
But extracting it, processing it, and turning it into batteries to store renewable energy and power electric vehicles is another question entirely.
但是，对锂的提炼，加工和制造成电池，以储蓄可更新能源并驱动汽车，又完全是另一个问题。
The lake was formed in 1905, as floodwaters spilled from the Colorado River into an irrigation canal that made its way to the Salton Sink, a large natural basin.
索尔顿海其实是一个湖泊，形成于1905年。科罗拉多河溢出的洪水进入一条通往索尔顿沉谷（一个天然大盆地）的运河，从而形成了一个湖泊。
The accidental swimming hole became a tourist destination in the years that followed, but the air there is now poisonous. And the water is exceptionally foul because chemicals from farms settled into the salt bed and got into the water, with desert winds making the situation much worse.
这个意外形成的游泳坑洞在接下来的几年里成了一个旅游景点，但是现在那里的空气有毒。那里的水特别脏，因为来自农场的化学物沉淀在盐床，并进入水中，来自沙漠的风使得情况更糟糕。
Study looks at lithium in California’s Salton Sea
对加州索尔顿海的锂研究
A group of scientists from the University of California, Riverside, and Geologica Geothermal Group is now researching a massive geothermal reservoir around and beneath the lake.
一群来自加州大学河滨校区和地质地热集团的科学家们现在正在研究索尔顿的周围和湖底的大规模地热储蓄。
Hot, salty water known as “geothermal brine” lies in the reservoir, which is pumped from thousands of feet below the ground. In this process, it is converted to a gas that turns a turbine, which generates massive amounts of electricity.
通过水泵从数千英尺的地下抽出高温高盐的水，又称为“地热卤水”。这个过程中，盐水被转化为气体，使涡轮机转动，从而产生大量电力。
As an added benefit, the pumping process also brings up lithium, which can be used in batteries for electric cars. For many years, after the liquid cooled, it was pumped back into the ground, but scientists are now taking a long look at extracting the lithium first.
作为额外收益，抽水过程中还带来了锂。锂可以用在电动汽车的电池上。在过去的许多年来，当盐水冷却后会被压回地下，但是现在科学家要先着眼于提取锂。
The Salton Sea project is sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office. In the plans, which were described as the first detailed investigation to map out California’s so-called “Lithium Valley,” Berkeley Lab announced that the Geothermal Technologies Office had funded its research to the tune of $1.2 million, on February 16.
索尔顿海工程由美国能源部的地热技术办公室赞助。他们计划先仔细调查，绘出加州所谓的“锂谷”的地图。在2月16日，伯克利实验室声称，地热技术办公室已经对其研究资助了120万美元。
“The Salton Sea geothermal system is the primary potential geothermal resource for lithium in the United States, and it’s a world-class resource,” says Pat Dobson, the Berkeley Lab scientist and the leader of the project.
伯克利实验室科学家兼项目带头人帕特·多布森（Pat Dobson）说：“索尔顿海地热系统是美国首要的含锂的潜在地热资源，也是世界级的资源。”
“But there is a wide range of estimates in terms of the size of the resource, and also not a great understanding of where the lithium comes from, the rate at which it would decline over time with the extraction of lithium from the geothermal brine, and whether it would be replenished by the remaining lithium in the host rocks.”
"但是，我们对锂资源规模的估计范围很广，而且对锂的来源、从地热卤水中提取锂后随着时间推移锂含量下降的速度，以及寄主岩中剩余的锂是否会补充等问题也不甚了解"。
One of the many purposes of the investigation is determining the amount of lithium in the field, but the team is also planning to examine the possible environmental impacts to determine how much water and chemical are needed to extract lithium.
确定索尔顿海的锂数量是本次调查的目标之一，但是研究团队还计划检验可能的环境影响，以确定提炼锂时需要多少水和化学物。
“In repurposing the extracted fluids already used for electricity production as a lithium source, we can put domestic lithium onto the market while producing electricity simultaneously, all with a minimal environmental footprint,” the Geothermal Technologies Office said.
地热技术办公室表示：“把对已经用于发电的提取液作为锂资源进行再利用，我们可以用最小的环境代价，在国内生产投入市场的锂，同时还能发电。”
California could be the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”
加州可能会成为“锂的沙特阿拉伯”
The scientists say the geothermal field hidden under Salton Sea, California has the potential to contain enough lithium to meet all the lithium requirements of the US, with possible exportation of leftover lithium.
科学家们说，蕴藏在加州索尔顿海底下的地热场有蕴藏着足够满足美国对锂需求的潜能，并还有可能用于出口。
In 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom dubbed the state the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” establishing the Lithium Valley Commission to investigate and report the possibilities of the valley.
2021年，加州州长盖文·纽森（Gavin Newson）称加州为“锂的沙特阿拉伯”，成立调查和报告索尔顿山谷的锂潜能的锂谷委员会。
Michael McKibben, a research professor at the University of California, Riverside, who has been studying the Salton Sea geothermal field since the 1970s, also agrees with the potential.
加州大学伯河滨分校的研究教授迈克尔·麦基本（Michael McKibben)自1970年代起就研究索尔顿海的地热场，他也认同这里的潜能。
“If you do a back-of-the-envelope calculation, you can convince yourself there’s somewhere between 1 and 6 million metric tons of lithium in that field,” says McKibben in an interview with Interesting Engineering.
“如果你做一个反向计算的话，你就能说服你自己，索尔顿海蕴藏着1百万到6百万吨锂。”麦基本在接受“有趣工程”采访时说。
“That would be the largest brine source of lithium in the world, bigger than any individual South American salar deposit.
“这将会是世界最大的卤水锂矿，超过任何一个南美洲的盐湖矿的蕴藏量。”
So, it’s a big number, and it means the potential is there for – again, back-of-the-envelope calculations – something like 50 to 100 years’ worth of lithium production.”
”因此，再次反向计算，知道这是个很大的数字，意味着它的潜能能够满足50到100年的锂生产。”
Lithium is important for electric vehicles
锂对电动汽车非常重要
Interest in electric vehicles is undeniably increasing. Electric vehicles will likely replace gasoline-powered cars in the coming decades, so this project is vital for the industry.
不可否认，人们对电动汽车的兴趣日益俱增。在未来几十年里，电动汽车很有可能取代汽油驱动的汽车，允许索尔顿海工程对汽车产业非常重要。
Despite evidence suggesting lithium mining may be environmentally harmful, electric vehicles — and lithium — are part of any credible plan to tackle climate change.
尽管锂矿开采可能对环境有害，但是电动车和锂是应对气候变化的可靠计划的一部分。
Lithium-ion batteries are used to charge electric vehicles and to power many of our consumer electronics.
锂离子电池用于电动汽车的充电，也为我们的消费电子产品提供动力。
The lithium reserve in the Salton Sea could be a breakthrough for the industry, giving it the potential to ramp up due to the vast amount of lithium extracted from beneath this most unusual inland lake in California.
从加利福尼亚州这个最不寻常的内陆湖泊中提取了大量锂，锂产业有可能加速发展，而这个重要突破就从索尔顿海的丰富储量开始。