New plant produces lithium 500 times faster with 96% recovery rate from brine

The world is gradually moving towards a cleaner, more sustainable future, and lithium is a crucial element in this transition.

Energy tech company, SLB, has successfully demonstrated sustainable lithium production at its demonstration plant in Clayton Valley, Nevada.

SLB has announced that the results from their demonstration plant confirm a recovery rate of “96% lithium from brine at operational rates.”

The company revealed that this plant has incorporated direct lithium extraction (DLE), concentration, and conversion technologies to produce lithium sustainably at a large scale.

By integrating these various technologies, SLB has created a complete solution for producing lithium, while minimizing environmental impact and maximizing efficiency.

“Lithium is a key enabler of electrification, so we must find ways to accelerate its production without adversely affecting the environment,” said Gavin Rennick, president of SLB’s New Energy business.

Uses less land, water, energy

SLB’s integrated solution is a comprehensive process designed to extract lithium from brine and produce high-purity lithium compounds. The process involves direct lithium extraction, concentration, and conversion.

As per the press release, the new tech combines SLB’s subsurface and surface expertise, including DLE.

Interestingly, this new integrated tech produces lithium from brine 500 times faster than other known techniques. Moreover, this technology is more sustainable because it requires only 10% of the land along with less water, energy, and chemical reagents.

“Operating at approximately one-tenth the size of a commercial-scale facility, the plant reached a verified recovery rate of 96 percent lithium from brine,” the press release noted.

This method produces high-purity lithium carbonate or hydroxide, which are key elements in the production of batteries and other energy storage devices.

“SLB’s demonstration plant in Clayton Valley proves our unique integrated approach to produce scalable quantities of lithium in the fastest, most economical and sustainable way for today’s market. This accelerates deployment of viable commercial-scale facilities for high-quality lithium products that are the backbone of our electrification economy,” Rennick said.

SLB’s fast and efficient process

Evaporation is the usual method to produce lithium from brine. However, this process is not sustainable as it requires a large area and leads to high amount of water loss.

Also, this evaporation process leaves waste such as salt, underground minerals, and used chemicals on the surface. These may pose a threat to biodiversity and the environment.

SLB’s process is fast. It takes mere hours to extract lithium from brine and convert it to technical-grade lithiu m carbonate. The standard evaporation procedures take up to 18 months. It also has a drawback: a substantially lower recovery rate of 50 percent or less.

“Lithium is sold commercially as lithium chloride, used as a feedstock for producing lithium metal; lithium carbonate, used in smartphones and short-range EVs; and lithium hydroxide, used in long-range EV batteries. SLB’s solution is highly flexible and can be adjusted to produce any of these products,” the press release explained.

After achieving the technical goals set in its pilot plant, SLB has paved the way for potential 100% ownership of the Clayton Valley Project. For this, it is expected to sign an earn-in agreement with Pure Energy Minerals Ltd.