Cooperative Agreement DEEE0009430

The Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a $723,475,026.97 Project Grant under the Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chain Demonstrations and Commercial Applications program (CFDA 81.253) to SWA Lithium LLC. The grant will fund the construction of the largest and first-of-its-kind direct lithium extraction (DLE) facility in North America that will produce battery-quality lithium carbonate from domestic brine in southern Arkansas. The project aims to strengthen domestic manufacturing capabilities...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems awarded a $175,000 Project Grant to The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York to support research under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041). The project aims to advance a sustainable chemistry-based approach for extracting lithium ions from hypersaline aqueous brines, which have lower lithium-ion concentrations compared to other alkali metal cations. The...

The Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy awarded Bher Minerals LLC a $29,795,810 cooperative agreement under the Conservation Research and Development program (CFDA 81.086) from July 1, 2021 through March 31, 2023. The award will support Bher Minerals' project to electrolytically produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate from geothermal brine in Des Moines County, Iowa. The Conservation Research and Development program aims to conduct long-term research...

This $464,985 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports research to design new molecular receptors that can selectively capture lithium ions from natural sources such as salt lakes and geothermal brines. The project aims to develop materials that can extract lithium more efficiently and sustainably, strengthening the U.S. supply chain for this critical mineral and reducing environmental impact. Key research activities include...

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) provides $650,214 to the University of Nevada, Reno to study lithium enrichment in volcanic caldera systems. Principal investigators Drs. Harlaux and Ruprecht will analyze melt and fluid inclusions in volcanic rocks from the McDermitt Caldera using electron microprobe, LA-ICP-MS, and SIMS to determine how lithium progressively enriched in magmas and was partitioned into volatile phases during magma...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Directorate (CFDA 47.041) Project Grant award of $231,810 to the University of Louisville provides funding for a collaborative research project on the selective extraction of lithium from seawater. The principal investigators, Professors Xiaowei Teng and Badri Narayanan, aim to develop new classes of manganese oxide layered materials for electrochemical lithium extraction from seawater. The project will integrate materials synthesis,...

This federal Project Grant award of $499,320 was provided by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), CFDA 81.135, to Lithios Inc. located in Medford, MA. The funding supports the development of "Advanced Lithium Extraction (ALE)", a new electrochemical technology to selectively extract lithium from difficult feedstocks with high purity. The goal is to help overcome limitations in current lithium extraction methods and support more sustainable and domestic lithium...

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation provides $497,339.95 in funding to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) to develop an innovative hybrid membrane process for simultaneous recovery of clean water and lithium from high-salinity brines. The project aims to address challenges associated with the disposal of large volumes of high-salinity brines through a membrane distillation-crystallization system for...

The Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy awarded Oregon State University a $500,000 cooperative agreement from July 2021 to December 2023 under the Conservation Research and Development program. The goal of the award is to develop microchannel-based membrane-less extraction technologies for lithium from unconventional sources and rare earth element separation. Oregon State University will work with the University of Pittsburgh to extract lithium from...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $300,000 to the University of Virginia to support research and development focused on advancing a novel lithium extraction process for recycling lithium-ion batteries. The two-year project aims to develop a fundamental understanding of key components in this recycling approach, which leverages chemical oxidation and selective electrochemical recovery to selectively extract...