The Tough Tech problem we are solving
Nearly every rechargeable battery uses lithium. The majority of the world’s economic lithium resources are concentrated overseas and can only be extracted via methods that are highly pollutive (open-pit mining of rock) or highly inefficient (evaporation of brine in massive surface ponds). These challenges, together with the recent discovery of vast, unconventional sources of lithium in North America—historically inaccessible using existing methods—have spurred a host of new extraction methods which rely on ion exchange or adsorption technologies, collectively known as Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE). While these methods may offer a potential improvement over open-pit mining and evaporation ponds, they have struggled to get off the ground in commercial mining operations due to environmental and cost concerns related to the extensive use of chemicals, freshwater, and power.
About our solution
Lithios is developing Advanced Lithium Extraction (ALE) to address the shortfalls of alternative extraction technologies. ALE uses highly selective lithium capture electrodes to separate the lithium from unwanted contaminants, like sodium, magnesium, calcium, and boron, and then release the captured lithium into highly pure streams that can be readily refined into battery-grade lithium chemicals. The process is completely driven by electricity, with no chemicals or solvents required, allowing ALE to have significant reductions in energy consumption, freshwater use, and cost compared to DLE. Because of its low environmental impact, as well its modular and scalable architecture, ALE can be scaled and deployed quickly and efficiently. Lithios aims to commercialize its ALE system with the goal of turning currently uneconomic sources of lithium into sustainable new supplies around the world, including in the US, to enable a secure, domestic supply chain of one of the central elements of the energy transition.