JV Article: SLB launches ‘well-to-product’ lithium production service

SLB, a global energy technology company, is advancing sustainable energy solutions by introducing a new production service for the lithium brine sector.

Developed at SLB’s demonstration plant in Clayton Valley, Nev., the “well-to-product” scalable technology combines SLB’s geological expertise with surface engineering, Nicholas Lugansky, SLB’s Head of Mining, said. The solution yields battery-grade lithium on site – beyond the lithium brine extraction methods based on direct lithium extraction (DLE) being developed by competitors, Lugansky said.

“Over the years, concern has grown about the sustainability of conventional lithium extraction,” he said.

The company’s process uses significantly less water, less energy and fewer chemical reagents compared with other DLE-based lithium production solutions.

“Emerging technology is poised to not only accelerate and maximize lithium recovery but also to do so in a way that is less detrimental to natural and societal environments,” Lugansky said. “DLE—with its ability to recover a large majority of the lithium available and reinject about 90% of spent brine back into the reservoir—is one such method.”

100 years of experience

With a century of subsurface geology knowledge, SLB can uniquely identify and model lithium reserves and aquifer behaviour to optimize production, Lugansky said. The company’s geological work uses leading oil and gas software platforms customized to lithium resources to develop reservoir models.

“We’ve used this expertise and experience to develop innovative technology and to prove that sustainable lithium production is possible on a small footprint, with low water, energy and chemical reagent consumption,” he added.

Lithium is frequently sold commercially as lithium chloride and is used as feedstock for creating lithium metal and lithium carbonate found in smartphones and short-range EVs, while lithium hydroxide powers long-range EV batteries.

The company’s technology is highly flexible and can be adjusted to produce any of those products, Lugansky said.

“Lithium is a key enabler of electrification, so we must find ways to accelerate its production,” he added. “SLB understands what it takes to test, develop, implement and operate a new DLE-based production facility.”

Demand for electric vehicle batteries and energy storage is expected to grow by three times from 2024 to 2030, Lugansky said. China now sells more electric vehicles than traditionally-powered automobiles, while the EV adoption rate in northern Europe ranges as high as 95%.

“With a global footprint in more than 100 countries and employees representing almost twice as many nationalities, we work each day to deliver new technologies impacting industrial decarbonization, and clean energy systems that accelerate the energy transition,” he said.

Looking to the future, SLB wants to enable the construction of dozens of lithium brine plants to help meet the rising demand for high quality battery-grade lithium products, with reduced environmental impact.

“We believe our strongest markets for scalable lithium brine extraction plants will be in the U.S., Canada, Argentina and Chile,” Lugansky said, noting Chile no longer allows evaporation ponds. “And reason being is this technology works very well with these types of brines.”

The preceding joint venture article is PROMOTED CONTENT sponsored by SLB and produced in co-operation with The Northern Miner. Visit www.slb.com/lithium for more information.