DLE Technology:
Direct Lithium Extraction
In a DLE operation, brine is pumped to a processing unit where a resin or adsorption material is used to extract only the lithium from the brine, while spent brine is reinjected into the basin aquifers.
Direct lithium extraction (DLE) by lithium absorption from saline water sources to an ion exchange type material or bead, followed by washing with hydrochloric acid, producing dilute lithium chloride with impurities. DLE tends to fit lithium resources with higher hardness, in areas not suitable for evaporation ponds.
The implementation of Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technologies has significantly problematic the supply of lithium from brine reservoirs. The main problem is cost. Water usage in DLE process four times bigger than any lithium processing technology. Using large amount HCL is costly and not environmentally friendly.
Brine process is companies are waiting 12 to 18 months evaporation process to harvest lithium salt. This process cannot produce enough lithium at right rate and right cost any more. Water once again play very critical role in this process. Brine process users are looking for cheap and nasty solution to produce lithium much quicker, they are now marketing so called DLE without producing any commercially valuable lithium so far. LKE SP collapsed because of misleading investors with lilac sort of DLE.
DLE objective is: Instead of concentrating lithium by evaporating brine in large pools, DLE pulls the brine directly into a processing unit, puts it through a series of chemical processes to separate the lithium, then injects it back underground. This objective failed at many fronts:
ESG failed: injecting acidic waste to underground is unacceptable
Cost triples
Water usage quadrupled.
DLE. Process technology did not produce commercial size lithium so far. Even in lab environments it failed.
What are the DLE so far:
- It did no increases the lithia recovery rate from brines. They advertised 70-90% efficiency. Results 0% so far. ( current brine recovery rate is max 50%)
- It did not reduces the use of fresh water during extraction.
- It didn’t lower carbon footprint than traditional extraction methods.
- It didn’t reduces the overall amount of time needed for the lithium extraction process
What are the problems with DLE lithium extraction?
The process of extracting lithium consumes significant amounts of water and energy, and lithium mining can pollute the air and water with chemicals and heavy metals. In addition, mining lithium can disrupt wildlife habitats and cause soil erosion, leading to long-term ecological damage.
Science has always capability to create new alternative lithium and REE extraction technologies, if fundamental conditions are right. However DLE is not one of them within current shape, form and conditions.
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