Gradiant has released its spin-out alkaLi, a standalone company dedicated to accelerating the scaling of battery-grade lithium production. alkaLi is powered by EC2, an all-in-one solution engineered to extract, concentrate and convert battery-grade lithium.
With electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems driving global demand for lithium, EC2 offers producers a new way to rapidly scale lithium production.
EC2 offers immediate production, reduced expenses (with 50% lower OPEX and zero CAPEX costs), significantly decreased carbon and water footprints, and expedited permitting to meet global lithium demand. The entire system is well-balanced, unified, and adjusts to a wide range of source inputs.
alkaLi’s EC2 is a highly modular three-stage system adaptable to a broad range of source inputs, including brine, evaporation, and recycling. The technology can be deployed in full or standalone stages, integrated with existing site infrastructure with an option to supercharge production with SmartOps AI. It has been bench and field-tested and has successfully completed a commercial proving system with SLB in 2023.
Alkali will continue to offer the same business model flexibility as Gradiant, providing producers with a zero CAPEX option in which the company builds, owns, and operates the solution.
“Demand for lithium is outstripping supply,” said Prakash Govindan, COO of Gradiant. “We must accelerate the scale of production solutions and it is for this reason that we will spin out alkaLi, a completely independent company with a dedicated focus on maximizing the production efficiency of battery-grade lithium.”
alkaLi’s EC2 solution can extract, concentrate, and convert battery-grade lithium with optimized efficiency and sustainability throughout each stage:
- Extraction: Synthesized resins and novel membranes optimize lithium extraction, uniquely reaching Generation II levels and a rich lithium stream for maximum downstream efficiency. A second Li-lean stream is output, and each flows to CFRO units in the concentration stage.
- Concentration: Powered by Gradiant’s award-winning CFRO to maximize system efficiency, consuming an order of magnitude less energy than thermal processes.
- CFRO I receives the Li-rich stream and further concentrates to levels sufficient to convert to battery-grade lithium.
- CFRO II receives the Li-lean stream and reduces TDS to below regulatory limits, allowing expedited permitting.
- Conversion: The concentrated lithium is precipitated into a solid to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) or lithium hydroxide (LiOH).
Filed Under: Batteries, Technology News