99.9% Purity of Battery-Grade Lithium Hydroxide from Wastewater

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.

Wastewater Lithium Extraction Advantages

Attaching lithium production to existing industrial operations has several compelling benefits, including:

1. Lithium-containing water is already available, so there is no need for new permits, drilling, or water conveyance.
2. Many operators have re-use or disposal options available for spent lithium brine, so there is no need for new evaporation ponds or disposal wells because no additional wastewater is generated.
3. Lastly, industrial operators have established financial, engineering, and project delivery capabilities, making wastewater extraction easier to roll out at scale.

In general, harvesting lithium from wastewater involves two steps:

1. Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE): lithium is absorbed and desorbed onto a material using chemical processes, ultimately producing a lithium chloride solution of low quality, but with ten times higher lithium concentration than the original wastewater. A wide variety of DLE technologies exist or are being developed. Saltworks is technology agnostic concerning DLE processes and works with clients to select the best one for their project.
2. Lithium Upgrading and Refining: the low quality lithium chloride solution is processed into high quality battery grade lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. This is where Saltworks’ core technologies come into play and offer significant advantages to clients.

Outlook for Wastewater Lithium Extraction

Given these results and the increased promise of lithium harvesting, Saltworks is now undertaking further study of wastewater lithium harvest and economics in wastewaters with lithium in excess of 70 mg/L, sustained flow rates greater than 1000 m³/day, and where existing infrastructure can be leveraged.