DOE Awarding $10.9M to 10 projects to Expand Domestic Supplies of Lithium

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award $10.9 million to 10 projects across nine states that will advance innovative technologies to extract and convert battery-grade lithium from geothermal brine sources in the United States. (DE-FOA-0002823, earlier post)

Currently, the United States has limited capabilities to produce and refine domestically sourced lithium. Direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines represents an opportunity to produce lithium hydroxide—the form of lithium used for advanced batteries—domestically in an efficient and environmentally friendly way.

The 10 projects were selected from two Topic Areas:

1. Field Validation of Lithium Hydroxide Production from Geothermal Brines: Pilot or demonstration projects to validate cost-effective, innovative lithium extraction and lithium hydroxide conversion technologies.

2. Applied Research & Development for Direct Lithium Extraction from Geothermal Brines: Research and development projects to advance emerging direct lithium extraction process technologies to increase efficiency, reduce waste generation, and/or reduce cost.

Sixty-two percent of the total funding was awarded to two projects: $5 million to Energy Exploration Technologies for the project “Simplified High Purity Direct Lithium Hydroxide Production from Salton Sea Brines”; and $1.8 million to ExSorbtion for the project “Environmentally Friendly, Fastest to Production, and Lowest Cost Direct Lithium Extraction Solution”.

The projects add to a portfolio of recent investments such as DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) Critical Materials Institute – an Energy Innovation Hub led by Ames National Laboratory and Geothermal Technologies Office’s (GTO’s) Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize.

These projects will also further develop a DOE-led innovation ecosystem around lithium production as project participants will be invited to participate in the Lithium RD&D Virtual Center. The Center coordinates investment activity across industry, government, and academia.