Texas Plant to Extract Lithium from Oil Wastewater

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Written by Paul Wiseman for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

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Summary

Various DOE programs help Element3 commercialize revolutionary system for extracting lithium from produced water in Permian Basin.

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First Commercial Lithium from Oilfield Produced Water

Output from one plant in Midland, Texas, which started up in February of this year, could match about half of the U.S.'s lithium mining capacity when fully operational.

Except it's not a lithium mine in the traditional sense; instead, it uses a process called direct lithium extraction (DLE) to remove battery-grade lithium powder from water co-produced with oil in oil wells.

Oil wells produce much more water than oil, in ratios of anywhere from 4-1 to 10-1. This "produced water" is rich in salts and minerals, including lithium, that heretofore have simply been pumped as waste into disposal wells.

While efforts to economically extract minerals from produced water have multiplied in the last five to 10 years, Element3's Permian Basin Lithium Extraction and Carbonate facility is among the first to operate on a significant scale.

Industrial Info Resources is tracking 55 active lithium mining projects in the U.S. with TIV of $41.62 billion. Industrial Info Resources offers more information on these projects in its Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Metals & Minerals Project Database, where subscribers can find details--including construction schedules, investment values and necessary equipment--in a list of project reports.

How It Works

For this plant, Element3 in 2024 licensed an extraction technology (actually a litany of seven technologies) developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), through the DOE's Critical Materials Innovation Hub.

Said technologies include membrane-extraction techniques and new separation methods that separate lithium chloride from both other elements and the water that contains them. It then converts the lithium chloride into battery-grade lithium carbonate powder.

The final product is a solid, the company reports, which is the main material for the battery supply chain.

Hood Whitson, the founder and chief executive officer of Element3, said in a May 1 interview that the company intends to fill up this plant and expand elsewhere," indicating that the plant is not yet operating at capacity.

U.S. Lithium Needs to Ramp Up

The need for more domestic production is critical, as the U.S. currently produces less than 1% of the world's total lithium, somewhere between 610 and 4,000 tonnes per year. It imports more than half its lithium, mostly from Argentina and Chile, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Currently there is only one significant lithium mine, Albemarle's Silverpeak Lithium Solution Mine in Nevada. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed plant profile.

Industrial Info Resources is tracking five active lithium mines, in addition to the 55 projects. If Element3 and other produced water extraction pilot projects take off, this could open new doors to a domestic lithium supply. Significant investment in plants and infrastructure would have to follow, so it could still be years off.

Lithium's U.S. Future Seems Bright

Much has also been invested in DLE extraction from brine in the Smackover Formation that straddles the Arkansas-Texas border. According to the USGS, this could contain anywhere from 5 million to 19 million metric tons of lithium. The wide variance there is because, said the USGS, they only determined lithium's presence, not differentiating based on economic or technical recoverability.

Traditional lithium mining could also be about to explode. The USGS has reported the discovery of significant lithium deposits in two U.S. regions. Last May it said the Appalachian region is estimated to contain 2.3 million metric tons of untapped, economically recoverable lithium. That would replace 328 years of U.S. imports at 2025's rate.

Also, there could be 20 million to 40 million metric tons of lithium-rich clay in the McDermitt Caldera on the Nevada-Oregon border. The USGS says this may be single largest lithium deposit ever found.

Demand Growth Through the Roof

As demand grows from battery electric-storage systems (BESS) to help wind and solar supply baseline power, from EVs and others, supply will have to scramble to keep up, according to many in the industry, including Lithium Harvest.

Lithium Harvest sees demand increasing by three times by 2030 and 4.2 times by 2035. it notes 30% demand growth in 2024 over 2023. EVs and BESS account for more than 60% of lithium use and could reach 90% by 2040.

Key Takeaways

• To meet U.S. and world lithium demands for batteries in EV and BESS systems, it will be all hands on deck for miners.
• Accessing lithium from oilfield produced water, after years of research, is now a viable addition to the mining mix.

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About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news, and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing, and energy-related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified, and verified plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 trillion (USD).