Lithium tech developers eye ways to boost water recycling

E3 Lithium

13/09/2023 14:21

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      Lithium industry working to reduce DLE water use
    

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      DLE seen as fully commercial by 2025
    

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      Lithium industry boosting freshwater recycling
    

  
    By Ernest Scheyder
       PITTSBURGH, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The mining industry is
working to boost freshwater recycling while also developing
direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies as it races to
reinvent how the battery metal is produced for the green energy
transition, executives said.
    The surging global demand for lithium has sparked widespread
interest in DLE technologies, which use less land and can
operate far faster than hard rock mining and brine evaporation
ponds - the traditional ways to process the white metal.
    Some types of DLE technologies, though, require 180 metric
tons or more of water to produce a single metric ton of lithium,
a usage that has sparked controversy in arid regions seeking to
conserve potable water and one that has offset DLE's purported
promise of curbing the mining industry's large water use. 
    Now, DLE developers are racing to boost freshwater recycling
as they fine tune technology, part of a push to ensure they do
not lose community support before their industry has a chance to
go fully commercial.
    "If we cannot do a good job of recycling that water and
reducing our water footprint, we're going to get crushed," John
Burba, executive chairman of International Battery Metals
 IBAT.CD , told the Reuters Events Industry Transition
conference in Pittsburgh this week. "DLE is a very
water-intensive process." 
    Burba told the conference that IBAT - which has held talks
to license its DLE technology with Exxon Mobil  XOM.N , Chevron
 CVX.N  and others - recovers 98.5% of the freshwater used
during its lithium production process, and is aiming to boost
that further.
    Privately-held EnergyX, which counts General Motors  GM.N 
as an investor, said it can recover as much as 90% of its
freshwater, a number its scientists are working to increase.
    "Getting it down to maybe five or 10 or 15 (metric) tons of
freshwater per ton of lithium is kind of where you want to be,"
said EnergyX CEO Teague Egan.
    Controlled Thermal Resources, which is developing a
geothermal lithium project in California's Salton Sea to supply
GM and Stellantis  STLAM.MI , recycles a gallon of water at
least eight times and will produce water via steam from its
geothermal power process, said CEO Rod Colwell.
    "How many times we can recycle? That's really the big
question," said Colwell. 
    E3 Lithium  ETL.V , which is backed by Exxon's Imperial Oil
 IMO.TO , began testing three DLE technologies last month in
Alberta and aims to install water recycling facilities as it
goes commercial, said CEO Chris Doornbos. 
    "You end up having a small water treatment facility with
your processing facility so they can reuse that water over and
over and over again," said Doornbos. 
    
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    Each of the developers said they expect at least one DLE
technology to commercially launch by early 2025, a step that is
expected to boost the entire industry. 
    "DLE is a tool that is growing and improving to allow us to
unlock brines that might have been uneconomic in the past," said
Emily Hersh, CEO of privately-held mining explorer Luna Lithium.
    Whereas DLE once had many questioning if it even could
replace traditional lithium mining, those worries have now
faded, executives said.     
    "The question of 'if DLE works' is gone now. It's an
engineering challenge. It's not a technological challenge," said
E3's Doornbos.
    The push to curb water use, executives said, should in time
help assuage some concerns from the EV industry about mining's
environmental impact amid the rising demand for lithium,
executives added.
    "Every single (automaker) realizes that lithium is the
limiting factor in them producing electric vehicles," said
EnergyX's Egan. 

 (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
 ((ernest.scheyder@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @ErnestScheyder;
+1-713-210-8512; Reuters Messaging:
ernest.scheyder.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))