• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Automakers funding new tech aimed at making greener lithium for EVs

October 7, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

October 7, 2021

By Ernest Scheyder

CALIPATRIA, Calif. (Reuters) – Automakers, investors and even oilfield giant Schlumberger NV are beginning to embrace environmentally friendly technologies to produce lithium that could help meet 25% or more of global demand for the electric vehicle battery metal by the end of the decade.

Stellantis, Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and others have invested millions of dollars or signed supply agreements with so-called direct lithium extraction (DLE) start-ups in recent months in an attempt to propel the technology to commercial production, expected within the next year or two.

DLE technologies use less land and groundwater than hard rock mining and brine evaporation ponds – the traditional ways to process the white metal. Industry analysts see it as a new way to help ensure lithium supply for the EV industry – if the technology can work on a large scale.

“More green lithium is the promise of this new technology,” said Kasper Sage of BMW i Ventures, BMW’s venture capital fund, which this week invested https://ift.tt/3AjZge7 in DLE tech start-up firm Lilac Solutions Inc.

DLE technologies are comparable to common household water softeners, which remove metals from drinking water.

The process can take as little as a few hours to filter the metal inside an average-sized warehouse. By contrast, traditional evaporation ponds can be hundreds of acres in size, permanently drain nearby aquifers and take several years to produce lithium.

However, most DLE technologies are more expensive to operate than evaporation ponds, which use sunlight, and some require large volumes of freshwater and electricity.

Albemarle Corp and other traditional lithium producers 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,” said John Peichel of Suez PA’s water technology division, which sells equipment to the lithium industry.

Schlumberger, known for its hydraulic fracturing work, is building a DLE project in Nevada and says its “ultimate goal” is to produce lithium without any freshwater. It is a goal the U.S. Department of Energy is supporting with a $4 million contest for the best geothermal lithium technological developments.

WALL STREET

The potential hurdles have not hindered Wall Street’s interest in so-called green lithium.

Standard Lithium Ltd.’s shares have risen six-fold since they started trading in New York in July, even though the company’s DLE technology is still being piloted in Arkansas.

Australia’s Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd shares are up 40% since August on its plans to supply automakers https://ift.tt/3amQ6D2 Stellantis and Renault SA from its German DLE project.

Chris Berry, an independent industry analyst with House Mountain Partners, says that based on existing announcements, DLE could produce a quarter of global lithium supply by the end of the decade, though he noted not all technologies should be treated as equal. Other industry consultants put that figure even higher.

Global demand for lithium last year was about 320,000 tonnes, and is expected to hit 1 million tonnes by 2025 and 3 million tonnes by the end of the decade.

“Investors need to weigh the benefits of DLE technology against a host of challenges in tailoring the technology to each lithium deposit,” Berry said.

One area drawing attention from DLE developers is California’s Salton Sea, roughly 160 miles (258 km) southeast of Los Angeles. Superhot brines teeming with lithium swirl under the area, which sits atop the San Andreas Fault.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc and EnergySource LLC are studying ways to add DLE technology to existing power plants there so they can process lithium while producing electricity.

Nearby, privately held Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd is developing a geothermal lithium brine project to supply General Motors https://ift.tt/3iGPlcQ, which said CTR could supply “a sizeable amount of our lithium needs” by 2024.

That project, as well as a similar one in Argentina https://ift.tt/3Fmh4t6, are backed by technology from Lilac Solutions and seen by some analysts as one of DLE’s first commercial tests.

The DLE attention comes as prices for lithium are near all-time highs, according to data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, fueling the race for new technologies.

“Lithium supply is the main bottleneck to electrification and DLE can help boost that supply,” said Teague Egan, chief executive of Energy Exploration Technologies Inc, a privately held company working with Argentina lithium producer Orocobre Ltd.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Source Link Automakers funding new tech aimed at making greener lithium for EVs

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Putin calls for launch of regular cargo shipments via northern sea route next year
  2. Iran president selects hardline cabinet to drive hard bargain with U.S.
  3. MLB roundup: Padres halt Giants’ 9-game winning streak
  4. Garcia jumps back into action after Ryder Cup letdown

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Hayabusa2’s Target Asteroid Is 4 Times Smaller Than Thought – Can It Still Touch Down On It?
  • In 2011, Slavc The Wolf Journeyed 1,000 Miles To Begin Verona’s First Wolf Pack In 100 Years
  • Anyone Know What These Marine “Y-Larvae” Grow Into? Because Scientists Have No Clue
  • C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) Closest Earth Approach Is Next Month – Will We See It With The Naked Eye?
  • In 2013, A Volcanic Eruption Wiped Out Life On This Remote Island. Then, Somehow, Plants Reemerged
  • 1-Year-Old Orca Takes Out A Big Fat Seal In This Award-Winning – And Extremely Badass – Photo
  • Saturn And Neptune Will Reach Their Brightest In Days – And Look For Saturn’s Temporary Beauty Spot
  • Reindeer Bring A Gift Greater Than Any Of Santa’s – Hope Of A Stable Climate
  • If Deep-Sea Pressure Can Crush A Human Body, How Do Deep-Sea Creatures Not Implode?
  • Meet Ned: The Lonely Lefty Snail Looking For Love
  • “America Will Lead The Next Giant Leap”: NASA Announces New Milestone In Hunt For Exoplanets
  • What Did Neanderthals Sound Like?
  • One Star System Could Soon Dazzle Us Twice With Nova And Supernova Explosions
  • Unethical Experiments: When Scientists Really Should Have Stopped What They Were Doing Immediately
  • The First Humans Were Hunted By Leopards And Weren’t The Apex Predators We Thought They Were
  • Earth’s Passage Through The Galaxy Might Be Written In Its Rocks
  • What Is An Einstein Cross – And Why Is The Latest One Such A Unique Find?
  • If We Found Life On Mars, What Would That Mean For The Fermi Paradox And The Great Filter?
  • The Longest Living Mammals Are Giants That Live Up To 200 Years In The Icy Arctic
  • Entirely New Virus Detected In Bat Urine, And It’s Only The 4th Of Its Kind Ever Isolated
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version