The EV revolution is constructed on many issues, however maybe nothing else greater than lithium. We want lithium for each sort of EV battery for each sort of car that must be electrified. The problem we’ve talked about for the previous few years is that it takes a number of years to construct a lithium extraction facility, and getting the sufficient investments years or a decade upfront is an enormous wrestle.
One firm trying to assist out right here is Summit Nanotech. The startup can also be aiming to extract lithium in additional sustainable and environmentally pleasant methods. I not too long ago spoke to Summit Nanotech’s CEO and Founder, Amanda Corridor, about what her firm is doing to assist.
Yow will discover our CleanTech Speak podcast episodes on Anchor, Apple Podcasts / iTunes, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket, Podbean, Radio Public, SoundCloud, Spotify, or Stitcher.
“We’ve developed a sustainable lithium extraction course of. And sustainable can imply many issues to many individuals, however specifically, we targeted on low water use, low vitality use, and bringing down our greenhouse fuel emissions as effectively lowering waste manufacturing and reagent use. So, we form of assault the sustainability facet of an extraction course of from plenty of completely different angles. We’re deploying the know-how into the brine area. Lithium mining occurs in laborious rock or brine. We don’t cope with the laborious rock mining; we work with brine miners in South America. The know-how can be utilized to tug lithium out of brine, which is saltwater. And we additionally do an enchancment on yield, so we get double the yield in comparison with typical processes.
“So the know-how’s working nice. It’s piloting proper now in Chile. We’ve 6 pilot companions and it’s going fairly effectively.
“I’m a geophysicist, and so I have a look at the mining drawback for battery metals as one thing we have to actually strategy delicately, as stewards of the Earth, and as people who need a greater future. We are able to’t simply begin ripping up the bottom and making batteries with out placing a variety of thought into doing it sustainably and doing it effectively. And in order that’s what our firm focuses on.”
In South America, they’re making a lithium carbonate product with companions in Chile and Argentina. That goes to cathode producers. In North America, the corporate creates a lithium hydroxide product from a clay feedstock.
That’s from nearly 3 minutes of the 27-minute interview. I requested Amanda to additionally inform us a bit extra about who she is and the way she bought into this subject in addition to some latest fundraising from very notable buyers. And I requested her about her big-picture view of the lithium market globally. For one factor, she bought her home to start out the corporate. For far more on all of that, hearken to the entire episode.
As one ultimate teaser, Summit Nanotech says its direct lithium extraction (DLE) know-how has the potential to cut back manufacturing time from 18 months to 1 day! Once more, hearken to the episode for extra on that.
I do not like paywalls. You do not like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Right here at CleanTechnica, we applied a restricted paywall for some time, nevertheless it all the time felt unsuitable — and it was all the time powerful to determine what we must always put behind there. In concept, your most unique and finest content material goes behind a paywall. However then fewer individuals learn it! We simply don’t love paywalls, and so we have determined to ditch ours.
Sadly, the media enterprise remains to be a tricky, cut-throat enterprise with tiny margins. It is a unending Olympic problem to remain above water and even maybe — gasp — develop. So …
