Saltworks is pleased to announce the successful production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide from industrial wastewater.
Wastewaters from some industries contain lithium in meaningful concentrations. However, economically extracting battery-grade lithium has previously been challenging.
“Battery-grade lithium solids are projected to be in short supply as the world’s energy economy turns to lithium ion batteries for transport, grid storage, and more. Today’s announcement is an important milestone—our process opens the door to industrial wastewater becoming a viable source of battery-grade lithium,” said Joshua Zoshi, Saltworks’ COO.
Saltworks’ process harvests lithium hydroxide solids that reach or exceed battery-grade specifications, as confirmed by chemical analysis performed by a third party accredited laboratory. Concentrations of impurities and contaminants were all below industry standard levels, as indicated in a summary table. A detailed composition report of the solids and processing costs may be shared upon request.
Saltworks’ solutions treat a wide variety of industrial wastewaters. The company is applying its next generation technologies to harvesting ions of value from these waters. Last year, Saltworks helped a client recover cobalt, in short supply globally and considered by some to be a conflict mineral.
Attaching lithium production to existing industrial operations has several compelling benefits, including:
In general, harvesting lithium from wastewater involves two steps:
Saltworks is a technology provider to the lithium industry and not a resource company. We provide our advanced proprietary lithium refining and upgrading technology, working with the best partners and off-the-shelf technologies. We develop and package entire systems, custom designed to meet client needs. Our fleet of pilot plants is ready for dispatch while our senior scientists and engineers are pleased to help clients work toward their lithium goals using their expertise in water recovery and lithium processing. This includes producing battery grade outputs, developing full scale plant designs and costs, and delivering lithium processing technology.
Saltworks’ Lithium Test Center combines expertise and industry-leading technology to provide innovative solutions for processing lithium resources into battery-grade outputs. The Center is dedicated to de-risking lithium processing projects and accelerating full-scale implementation.
This lithium process flow brochure shows how membrane, thermal, and chemical water technologies fit into various stages of lithium production. Learn how to process lithium to battery-grade, downstream of direct lithium extraction.
Saltworks’ advanced water processing and resource extraction technologies are closing battery value chain gaps by cost-effectively refining, recovering and recycling valuable cathode active materials (CAM) including lithium, cobalt and nickel.
Saltworks brings water mining expertise and advanced desalination technologies to our lithium clients, offering solutions for concentrating, refining, and converting low-grade lithium sources to battery-grade product. We offer higher purity and lower energy processing technology, that boosts yield, removes unit operations, and reduces cost.
