EnergySource Minerals have partnered with Schlumberger New Energy and TechMet to scale the development of the ILiAD (Integrated Lithium Adsorption Desorption) lithium extraction platform.
The platform has been tested on a variety of real-world brines (groundwater enriched with dissolved lithium) on a performance level for over 6 years, which means that ILiAD is commercially ready to be deployed today.
Schlumberger will accelerate the testing of this lithium extraction technology at NeoLith Energy’s pilot plant in Nevada, becoming integrated into the front end of the process used at the plant, and then Schlumburger will work closely with EnergySource Materials to industrialize and deploy the ILiAD technology platform globally.
What does EnergySource Minerals do?
EnergySource Minerals, based in California, is a privately held company that specializes in lithium extraction and battery-spec lithium products. In addition to the development of ILiAD, EnergySource Minerals is also leading the development of Project ATLiS, which utilizes geothermal brines from the Salton Sea to produce battery-spec lithium products.
The CEO of EnergySource Minerals is Eric Spomer, who has over 30 years in the energy industry focused on project development, project finance, and management.
The Main Advantages with ILiAD and Reason of Growth
While the investment amount is not publicly available, both the President of Schlumberger New Energy and the CEO of TechMet are eager to work with EnergySource Minerals to scale up this innovative lithium extraction technology.
However, you might be wondering how this technology is truly innovative. Previous brine-sourced lithium extraction involves harmful chemicals and evaporating pools of salt water to collect the lithium deposits left behind, which is both costly and takes months to collect. However, ILiAD utilizes a lithium selective adsorbent which eliminates the use of harmful chemicals and ponds of water.
The ILiAD technology has the highest lithium recovery rates and drastically reduces water and chemical use, land and carbon footprint, costs for lithium extraction, and processing time (taking hours rather than months) compared to previous lithium extraction technologies.
As the market for electric vehicles grows, the demand for lithium for its batteries also increases. This demand is why the lithium extraction process must be efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly, which is what the ILiAD lithium extraction platform promises.
“We need a monumental ramp-up of lithium production to meet the global demand from EVs and the renewable energy transition, EnergySource Minerals’ pioneering DLE technology has the potential to scale lithium production globally while minimizing environmental impacts and we are hugely excited to be supporting the development of its first commercial operation on the Salton Sea.”
- Brian Menell, TechMet’s Chairman and CEO
Similar Investments
We are noticing a considerable growth in lithium investment and lithium extraction development as we continue to electrify transportation and improve electric batteries.
For example, the US government set plans to invest $2.9 billion in the lithium battery supply chain in the US, which includes the development of domestic lithium production and extraction. In addition,
Standard Lithium, which specializes in lithium extraction testing, has received $100 million as an investment from Koch Industries Inc. and partnered with LANXESS Corporation to develop the first commercial lithium project in Arkansas. The lithium extraction process Standard Lithium uses is called LiSTR, which is similar to ILiAD in the benefits both have compared to previous lithium extraction methods.
