ElectraLith produces battery-grade lithium using no water or chemicals

Melbourne-based ElectraLith Pty Ltd (ElectraLith) has announced that its next-generation DLE-R technology has successfully produced battery-grade lithium hydroxide from salar brines, geothermal oilfield brines and spodumene leach using its proprietary technology.

This included production of 99.9% pure lithium hydroxide from a contaminated brine comprising less than 60 parts per million (ppm) lithium. The proof of concept was achieved using no water, no chemicals and minimal energy.

DLE-R is a proprietary end-to-end electro-membrane technology. Unlike most direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies that generally produce lithium chloride, DLE-R can produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate as its final product.

DLE-R uses no water or chemicals and can run entirely on renewable power, delivering a step-change reduction to the environmental and economic costs of other lithium extraction processes, according to the company.

“Our production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide from a range of sources provides proof of concept and continues our progress towards commercialisation,” said ElectraLith CEO Charlie McGill. “These test results validate the true potential of DLE-R across lithium resource type, quality and concentration, underpinning DLE-R’s emergence as the most economic and sustainable method for extracting and refining lithium.”

Driven by EV demand, the global lithium market is projected to grow from US$27 billion in 2024 to US$134 billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 22%.

ElectraLith’s patented DLE-stage membranes are based on work conducted by membrane scientist Sir John Monash Professor Laureate Huanting Wang of Monash University. Professor Wang is chair of ElectraLith’s Science Advisory Committee and is one of the world’s most cited nanomaterials researchers.

The DLE-R process has two stages:

1. DLE-stage: Proprietary membranes extract lithium using electrodialysis to produce lithium chloride. The DLE-stage distinguishes itself from other DLE processes by eliminating water and chemicals; it is further distinguished by its ability to extract lithium from any source, including contaminated brines of extremely low concentration.
2. R-stage: Similar electrodialysis principles convert the lithium chloride into lithium hydroxide using off-the-shelf technology in a proprietary configuration. If required, the resulting lithium hydroxide can then be converted to lithium carbonate using a novel carbon-negative method.

Both stages are designed to operate entirely using electrodialysis, a commercially proven technology that has been deployed worldwide since the 1950s.

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