Meet John Liu, the student who used corn stalks to recover lithium from water

Image: @JJYAj/YouTube/AI Regenerated Lithium is a crucial ingredient in rechargeable batteries, but recovering it from dilute sources can be difficult and energy-intensive. John Liu, a high school student from St. Paul, Minnesota, approached that problem by looking at materials that are usually left behind after harvest: corn stalks and wheat straw. His project, titled ‘Passive Capillary-Evaporative Lithium Pre-Concentration from Dilute Brines Using Functionalized Corn Stalk Pith and Wheat Straw Scaffolds,’ explored whether agricultural waste could help concentrate lithium from dilute brines. The project earned Liu a place among Minnesota’s finalists for the 2026 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair and a Gold Award at the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair. The Minnesota Academy of Science lists his work among the fair’s top high-school projects and identifies him as a student from St. Paul.How John Liu turned agricultural waste into a lithium recovery materialLiu’s project centred on two materials that are abundant agricultural by-products: corn stalk pith and wheat straw. Rather than treating them simply as waste, he investigated their potential as scaf...