Standard Lithium Ltd. (Vancouver, B.C., Canada)has successfully commissioned and validated the performance of the largest continuously-operating Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) equipment in North America. The Company recently installed a commercial-scale DLE column at its Demonstration Plant near El Dorado, Arkansas. The column is a Li-Pro Lithium Selective Sorption (“LSS”) unit, supplied by Koch Technology Solutions, LLC (KTS).
The column was installed and integrated into the Company’s existing Demonstration Plant, and is currently extracting lithium from Smackover Formation brine at an input flow rate of 90 gal/min. This is, to the best of the Company’s knowledge, both the largest DLE installation, and the only example of a commercial-scale DLE column in operation in North America. Since commissioning, the column has operated continuously and exceeded the design parameters for lithium recovery and rejection of impurities. Key technical highlights of the commercial-scale DLE column are provided below:
Key Findings:
- Lithium Recovery Efficiency: During a representative two-week period of performance in April 2024, the Li-ProTM LSS (DLE) process achieved an average lithium recovery (i.e. after loading and elution) of 97.3% from the 90 gpm incoming brine flow (the average incoming brine contained 208 mg/L lithium during the same period).
- Element Rejection Rate: During the same period, the DLE process rejected, on average, over 99% of the key contaminants sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium from the brine (i.e. less than 1% of those contaminants made it through the DLE step into the first lithium chloride solution); and over 95% of boron was rejected.
- This high degree of contaminant rejection after DLE results in a substantially purified lithium chloride solution (the eluate). This eluate can then be further refined and concentrated using tested and proven steps to make it ready for conversion to either lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. These additional process steps have been successfully demonstrated for several years at the Company’s Demonstration Plant. In simple terms, when the DLE step rejects a higher percentage of impurities, the final lithium chloride solution, which is converted to battery-quality products, can be produced more efficiently.
- Operational Cycles: The most recent full-size commercial scale Li-Pro LSS column has completed over 86 operational cycles, and the Li-ProTM LSS technology has completed over 8,500 operational cycles at the Demonstration Plant.
- Brine Processed: As of the end of March 2024, the Demonstration Plant had processed 17,039,825 gallons (64,495,738 litres) of Smackover brine, produced directly from the formation and reinjected continuously back into the same formation.
- Lithium Chloride: Since May 2020, the Demonstration Plant has produced many millions of gallons of ‘raw’ lithium chloride eluate from several generations of DLE technology development. Almost all of the ‘raw’ lithium chloride has been returned to the formation through LANXESS’ existing tail brine reinjection infrastructure. Additionally, over the last 4 years, approximately 330,000 gallons (1.25 million litres) of concentrated and/or purified lithium chloride solution have been produced for further process testing or for conversion into battery-quality lithium carbonate or hydroxide.
The performance of this commercial-scale DLE column is being used to validate the design assumptions for the Phase 1A Project and also underpins the process design work underway for the South West Arkansas Project (see Press Release dated 24 January 2024).
Standard Lithium’s Director, President & COO, Dr. Andy Robinson commented: “Importantly, the column currently operating at SLI’s Demonstration Plant is identical to those that will be used in the commercial application, both in terms of the size, design and construction of the column, as well as the sorbent media being used inside. As such, this important collaboration between SLI and KTS at our Demonstration Plant is the first example in North America of DLE technology being deployed successfully using commercial-scale equipment. Validation of performance and successful operation of this column is a significant derisking step on our way to becoming the next major sustainable lithium producer in North America.”