Canada-based Mangrove Lithium closed a $3-million financing from BDC Capital’s Cleantech Practice. Mangrove is the developer of a modular platform for the cost-effective production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Its electrochemical innovation simplifies existing processes and can directly refine input streams from brine, hard-rock, clay and geothermal assets.

Mangrove’s modular solution can be scaled to any capacity and co-located with upstream lithium producers or cathode and cell manufacturers. The platform technology is also being commercialized for conversion of waste brines to chemicals and desalinated water.

Mangrove says that its process recovers more than 90% of the lithium from lithium concentrates. Mangrove also says that its technology can reduce lithium hydroxide production costs from lithium brines by as much as 45%.

Lithium processing is presently concentrated in a small number of regions in the world. As electrification and decarbonization accelerates, industry and governments have recognized the emerging supply risk and the importance of having access to a diverse, secure and low-cost source of the critical raw material.

—Mangrove’s CEO Saad Dara

Mangrove plans to leverage technology platform advancements made possible with $7.1 million in previously announced funding from Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) and Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). The $3 million in funding from BDC will help Mangrove accelerate the deployment of the first commercial systems with upstream lithium producers and cathode and cell manufacturers.

The Mangrove technology is derivative of the company’s original focus on the treatment of produced water. That system of modular technology combines ion-selective membranes with electrodialysis and fuel cell technology to convert the sodium chloride present in basal aquifer water, produced water and brackish groundwater into sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid. The process creates an effluent stream with salinity below 3,000 ppm.