Success: Local Production of Clean Lithium for Batteries Is Possible

A geothermal plant in France has produced the first kilograms of battery-grade lithium carbonate from European geothermal water, positively concluding a project designed to test the viability of such a process on regional soil.

The European Geothermal Lithium Brine project was completed upon extracting lithium carbonate by adapting the temperature and pressure conditions of geothermal water, at the Soultz-sous-Forêts geothermal plant in the French region of Alsace.

The next step is to optimize the economy model to see if the production of such batteries using renewable energy – thus making it a CO2-free activity – is viable on an industrial scale.