Vulcan Energy Resources will collaborate with DuPont Water Solutions,a leader in water filtration and purification, to test and to scale up Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) solutions for Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium extraction process. (Earlier post.)

DuPont will leverage its portfolio of proprietary Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) products to assist Vulcan with input and test-work during Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium project Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS). As part of the project, DuPont will be developing and testing an integrated Direct Lithium Extraction Process for Vulcan’s brine.

DuPont’s multi-technology portfolio of lithium selective sorbent, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, ion exchange resins, ultrafiltration, and close circuit reverse osmosis will be leveraged for the study.

The agreement is in line with Vulcan’s strategy to test and pursue commercially mature DLE products from major suppliers for its project to minimize technical risks and accelerate development of the project.

DuPont Water Solutions (DWS) is a leader in sustainable water purification and separation technologies, including ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis (RO) membranes and ion exchange resins. Collaborating with a company like DuPont is an important de- risking strategy for the DLE component of our Zero Carbon Lithium project. DuPont’s diverse set of products which can be manufactured at scale are likely to be well-suited to sustainably extract the lithium from the brine. We look forward to a successful long-term relationship with DuPont, to implement our strategy of becoming a major supplier of our unique Zero Carbon Lithium hydroxide to the European electric vehicle battery market.

—Dr. Francis Wedin, Managing Director

Vulcan Energy Resources is aiming to become the world’s first Zero Carbon Lithium producer by producing a battery-quality lithium hydroxide chemical product with net zero carbon footprint from its combined geothermal and lithium resource—Europe’s largest lithium resource—in the Upper Rhine Valley of Germany.

Vulcan will use the Zero Carbon Lithium process to produce both renewable geothermal energy and lithium hydroxide from the same deep brine source.

Resources

• William T. Stringfellow and Patrick F. Dobson (2021) “Technology for Lithium Extraction in the Context of Hybrid Geothermal Power” PROCEEDINGS, 46^th Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Stanford University, Stanford, California, February 15-17, 2021 SGP-TR-218