A Better Way:
IBAT's DLE Technology vs Traditional Extraction
Our proven process revolutionizes an industry plagued by unsustainable practices for too long.
Part of the reason lithium extraction has been limited in the U.S. is Americans have resisted attempts to mine in their communities, and with good reason: traditional mining processes have numerous deleterious effects on local ecosystems.
Heavy machinery used in hard rock mining generates air pollution and scars the landscape. The drilling and size-reduction work consumes thousands of gallons of freshwater, while thousands of gallons of heavy-metal-laden wastewater called acid mine drainage are generated and sent into local water systems. The surface hydrology of the pit area is permanently changed, making flooding a real risk.
Solar evaporation consumes even more freshwater than hard rock mining, often in arid climates where local residents can little afford to have their aquifers depleted. The waste salts from spent brine are also left behind in piles in the desert.
Each method is also energy-intensive, with large amounts of typically non-renewable energy required for processes such as crushing, grinding, and chemical separation.
INCREASING LITHIUM DEMAND IS SPURRING
THE NEED FOR MORE SUSTAINABLE EXTRACTION METHODS
The ‘electrification of everything’ has increased demand for lithium–and the number of planned lithium projects–dramatically, but it has also raised concerns about how that lithium is harvested.
Environmental activists cite the harmful effects to local habitats, while investors and electric vehicle (EV) and other manufacturers worry about the slow production times and low recovery rates of traditional extraction methods.
However, direct lithium extraction (DLE) is a new, cleaner way of extracting lithium that avoids many of the problems of traditional lithium extraction. IBAT’s DLE technology uses simple selective absorption to extract the lithium from brine with water and reinjects the brine into the ground.
Read on to learn how our method offers numerous advantages over outdated lithium extraction techniques.
IBAT's DLE Technology
vs Hard Rock Mining
-1.jpg "mining (1)-1")
Also called spodumene mining for the ore mineral that serves as the richest source of lithium, hard rock mining is the oldest method for obtaining lithium. Although spodumene accounts for only about one-third of the lithium produced from brines, it offers the advantage of being able to process the lithium into either lithium hydroxide–the preferred option for EV batteries–or lithium carbonate.
Hard rock mining typically entails first digging with heavy (diesel) machinery and blasting spodumene-containing rock from an open pit. These open pit mines can expose the surrounding habitat to toxic waste, and each step of the ensuing process can generate hazardous waste. In fact, extracting lithium from ores has been found to generate up to 60 times more pollutants through the consumption of fossil fuels than is generated from brine extraction.
Next is beneficiation, or concentrating the spodumene, through grinding and milling and separating the unused ore. This material, known as gangue, ultimately flows into a pond, where it can leak chemicals into local groundwater.
Roasting and leaching with sulfuric acid follow, both of which may release chemicals into the environment. To neutralize the excess sulphuric acid, the lithium is then treated with lime and ion exchange or solvent extraction is used to further purify it, which produce their own waste streams of salts and solvents.
In the final stage, sodium sulfate and gypsum are produced as wastes from converting purified lithium sulphate into either lithium carbonate or hydroxide. This activity, plus any other needed purification, generates more waste bound for waste ponds, typically along with the filtration system's wastewater.
IBAT DLE is a vast improvement over hard rock mining in several ways.
It uses less water and less energy, creating fewer emissions. The production time is faster, as our process yields commercial-grade lithium, with no further processing needed. The land usage is far lower, thanks to the modular design of our mobile DLE system.
And there’s the starkest difference: our process creates no evaporation ponds, salt piles, or lime plants.
IBAT's DLE Technology
vs Solar Evaporation
Liquid brine found under salt flats (or salars) serves as the primary source of most lithium in use today, and solar evaporation has been the traditional method for processing it. Unfortunately, like hard rock mining, solar evaporation creates a variety of problems for both the environment and asset owners.
In solar evaporation, operators drill into the salar and pump brine to the surface into evaporation ponds that often cover vast areas. Once there, operators simply wait–for as long as two years–for the sun to evaporate the water in the brine, leaving a concentrated solution of lithium chloride. The solution is then refined through pretreatment such as ion exchange to remove impurities, chemical treatment, filtration, and treatment with a reagent to form lithium carbonate.
One of the largest problems with solar evaporation is the amount of groundwater lost in the process of creating the ponds. This problem is magnified by the fact that in many of the places where solar evaporation is performed, such as South America, water is already scarce.
The large amount of water consumed is partly due to another shortcoming of solar evaporation: its low recovery rate. Roughly only 50% of the original lithium content of the brine is captured, so lots of water has to be pumped to hit production targets.
Additionally, after the lengthy evaporation process–another drawback–waste salts are left behind in piles, damaging the environment. Likewise, chemical waste from the purification process also typically ends up in the ponds, where it can seep into groundwater and pollute it.
Compared to IBAT DLE, our process is faster to set up, and faster to execute.
It’s capable of a much higher recovery rate despite using less water and no chemicals in processing. This also makes it more environmentally friendly, as there are no salt piles left behind or chemical waste to deal with. Even the spent brine is returned to the ground. And our modular and compact facility design allows for the use of much smaller land area than what would otherwise be required to accommodate huge evaporation ponds.
-1.png "Salar Salt (1)-1")
IBAT's DLE Technology vs Hard Rock Mining vs Solar Evaporation
|
Hard Rock Mining |
Solar Evaporation |
IBAT’s DLE Technology |
|
|
Production Time |
Long |
Very long |
Short |
|
Lithium Recovery Rate |
~60-80% (after processing) |
~50% |
95% |
|
Lithium Product |
Lithium Carbonate |
Lithium Chloride that is converted to Lithium Carbonate |
Lithium Chloride that is converted to Lithium Carbonate |
|
Process |
Mining, roasting, leaching |
Atmospheric evaporation |
Selective absorption |
|
Weather-Dependent |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
|
Requires Further Processing |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Water Usage |
High |
High |
Low |
|
Energy Usage |
High |
Medium-High |
Medium |
|
Emissions Levels |
High |
Low |
Low |
|
Land Area Usage |
Large |
Large |
Small |
IBAT's DLE Technology
vs Other DLE Methods
Direct lithium extraction is an exciting new technology that offers better lithium recovery rates, shorter time to market, and less environmental damage than traditional techniques. But not all DLE is the same–some processes are more of an improvement than others.
Learn how IBAT’s DLE system has an edge even over other DLE methods.
Move Forward with IBAT Technology
The traditional lithium extraction methods of the past are too inefficient, unsustainable, and costly to be part of the energy transition. Contact us today to learn how our innovative system gives asset owners a competitive advantage.