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Automakers Invested In New Technology for Greener Lithium Production for EVs

Investors, automakers, investors, battery makers and even fossil fuel giants Schlumberger NV are looking toward technologies to fold into environmentally friendly methods of producing lithium. One such technology, direct lithium extraction - or DLE - could help meet up to a quarter of the global demand for the EV critical metal by the end of this decade.
Lilac Solutions Lithium 7 photos
Photo: Lilac Solutions
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Stellantis, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and a host of others have invested millions of dollars in direct lithium extraction (DLE) start-ups intent on dominating the technology and pressing it into commercial production within the next couple of years.

These DLE technologies are attractive to producers as they use less land - and less precious groundwater - than the rock mining and brine evaporation ponds, which have been traditionally used to process the valuable white metal.

And industry analysts believe DLE may offer a way forward for producers to ensure an ongoing lithium supply for the EV industry, but the key is to discover whether or not the technology can function effectively on a large scale.

Lilac Solutions
Photo: Lilac Solutions
Kasper Sage of BMW i Ventures, BMW's venture capital arm, had invested in a DLE tech start-up firm, Lilac Solutions Inc, just this week.

"More green lithium is the promise of this new technology," Sage says.

These DLE technologies operate in much the same way as a household water softener is used to filter metals from drinking water. In practice, the process takes just a few hours to filter out enough metal to fill an average-sized warehouse. Traditional evaporation pond processes are often hundreds of acres in size and use water - which cannot be recovered - from aquifers. It can also take several years to produce than lithium.

While the current DLE technologies are considerably more expensive to operate than such evaporation ponds, they do still require large volumes of fresh water and lots of electricity.

Lilac Solutions
Photo: Lilac Solutions
According to Albemarle Corp, a traditional lithium producer, s say they have studied DLE technologies but feel they will not go mainstream until later this decade, given worries about high energy and water use.

"Access to clean water is one of the key hindrances to DLE," says John Peichel of the Suez PA water technology division. Suez PA sells equipment to the lithium industry.

For their part, Schlumberger, known for its hydraulic fracking, is also building a DLE project in Nevada, and they say they hope to produce lithium without using any freshwater. In addition, the U.S. Department of Energy is offering $4 million in contest funding for whoever can come up with the best geothermal lithium technological developments.

At the moment, the Australian firm Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd plans to supply automakers Stellantis and Renault SA green lithium from their German DLE project, and as a result, their shares have jumped some 40% recently.

Lilac Solutions
Photo: Lilac Solutions
Experts say DLE methods may one day produce a quarter of the necessary global lithium supply by the end of the decade.

The global demand for lithium last year amounted to some was about 320,000 tons, and it’s expected to reach 1 million tons by 2025 - and then triple to 3 million tons by the end of this decade.

One area of focus is California's Salton Sea which lies approximately 160 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The nearly stagnant sea is filled with brine loaded with lithium.

A similar project in Argentina, which operates with the Lilac Solutions tech is expected to provide one of DLE's first real commercial tests. This intense interest in DLE has been agitated as prices for lithium near all-time highs.

"Lithium supply is the main bottleneck to electrification and DLE can help boost that supply," said Chief Executive of Energy Exploration Technologies Inc, Teague Egan. Egan runs the privately held company working with Argentina lithium producer Orocobre Ltd.
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