PROJECT DESCRIPTION

• Motivation / Goals: The goal is to extract and produce Lithium domestically, in a manner that is significantly more environmentally friendly than current methods employed abroad. Lithium is a critical element for technologies like electric vehicles and rechargeable batteries. As renewable energy sources become ever more prevalent, identifying domestic sources of Lithium becomes more critical. The United States currently relies on Lithium extracted in countries like Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and in China. Oregon-based Espiku, Inc., was spun out of a water desalination project led by Dr. Baham Abbasi (Associate Professor of Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering at Oregon State University and founder of Espiku Inc.) that originated at Oregon State University’s Water and Energy Technologies Laboratory (WET) Lab. The technology extracts geothermal brine with low lithium concentrations. Domestically, these brines are found deep in the ground in places like Oregon, Nevada, Utah and California. The technology developed by Dr. Abbasi allows domestically-sourced brines with very diluted Lithium to be captured. This is done by evaporating out a high percentage of the water – water which can then either be safely re-injected into the source aquifer, or used for irrigation. This patented process produces a concentrated lithium brine of high parts per million that can then be domestically processed to produce lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide.

• Approach: Work with Oregon State University, Oregon Metals Initiative, Business Oregon, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to secure consistent domestically-sourced, refined and processed Lithium. This will help secure America’s renewable energy future without relying on foreign countries. Oregon State University owns the three main patents for the underlying technology and will continue to benefit from the on-going success of Espiku, Inc.

STAFFING

• OMI’s grant funded a dedicated chemist to conduct experiments with synthesized and real-world, domestic brines with low Li+ concentration, concentrate them, and precipitate lithium-carbonate. In other words, the grant funded all of the chemical analyses required to prove that our technology can in fact produce a lithium-rich brine – characterizing the salts, accurately measuring the lithium concentration, and produce lithium barbonate to meet the project target.

“The main motivation is to develop and demonstrate a more efficient technology to desalinate water and produce lithium-rich brines, and to bring it to a purely domestic market.”