Qinghai Solves Key Salt Lake Technical Challenges

According to China News Service, Liu Yongqing, head of the high-tech division of the Qinghai Provincial Department of Science and Technology, announced at a press conference that the province has overcome two global technical challenges: lithium extraction from salt lakes with high magnesium-to-lithium ratios, and magnesium chloride dehydration. This breakthrough has enabled independent and controllable core processes, including coupled lithium extraction and green extraction separation. The Qaidam Basin, situated in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, hosts 33 salt lakes of varying sizes. Its reserves of potassium, magnesium, and lithium each rank first in China. Leveraging these regional resources, Qinghai has built the world's first demonstration line for extracting lithium from lithium precipitation mother liquor at the ten-thousand-ton level, as well as the world's largest single-train integrated lithium salt industrialization project. Liu noted that the province continues technological research on the efficient development of complex brine, the recycling of solid waste, and the intensive deep processing of products to explore replicable green development models. Qinghai is also establishing China's national clean energy highland solar thermal technology innovation center, clearing full-process photovoltaic recycling techniques, and deploying advanced technologies such as new energy storage, green hydrogen, and smart microgrids. These efforts aim to overcome the intermittent nature of new energy and establish technical paths for large-scale energy development at high altitudes.

Establishing full-process photovoltaic recycling and deploying technologies like new energy storage, green hydrogen, and smart microgrids are designed to counter the intermittent and fluctuating nature of new energy, providing technical pathways for large-scale development in high-altitude areas.