Sustainable, Innovative, Accountable

Mining Green Hydrogen and Value-Added Materials from Hypersaline Brines

 

Our Sustainability Pledge

We create innovative technology and business that take saline waste and clean energy to harvest strategic metals, reducing reliance on foreign scarce metals & producing green hydrogen.

 

Our Objective

Our objective is to demonstrate a sustainable process for mining GH2 while creating value-added critical materials from seawater and is split into four thrusts. In total, the thrusts will design a process that mines and desalinates seawater. The clean water will then be electrolyzed in efficient membrane-based electrodes. The entire system will be guided by circular economy principles, resulting in a sustainable and value-optimal model.

A schematic showing the steps in mining green hydrogen and minerals from seawater

Background

Driven by the global goal of a net-zero emissions economy, green hydrogen (GH2) has emerged as a leading option to store energy. However, it is hampered by expensive production costs. Meanwhile, production of saline waste and its environmental damage is an over $1 million/100 gallon/minute problem. One dual remedy is to couple mineral (such as Lithium) desalination with cost-effective GH2 production via water splitting, creating a sustainable and circular process for extracting GH2 and value-added products from seawater. Current Li extraction technologies, however, are expensive, slow and environmentally damaging.

Source and Li+  Composition (ppm)

Clayton Valley

Salton Sea

Bonneville

Searles

Great Salt Lake

163 152 57 54 18

The US’s vast Li brines are dilute and require concentrations of 5000-7000 ppm, so ~99% of our Li is imported and are controlled by foreign powers.