• Post category:LRGP / News
You are currently viewing Launch of the LiFE project, a new step towards European lithium autonomy

After the technical validation of its Li-Capt® process for lithium extraction from geothermal brines from Alsace and Cornwall (England), the start-up GeoLith launches its LiFE (Lithium For Europe) industrialization program in partnership with the industrialist Tronox, the Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés(1), the Charles Sadron Institute(2) as well as with the Laboratoire Lumière, nanomatériaux et nanotechnologies(3)

The Li-Capt® process is an eco-responsible extraction process for lithium, which is present in small quantities in the subsoil of certain regions of the world, particularly in the Rhine basin. It provides access to new resources that were previously unexploitable and could enable lithium to be produced on French and European soil, thereby guaranteeing our sovereignty over this metal that is critical to the energy transition. In order to move from the laboratory and pilot phase to the industrial demonstration phase, GeoLith has initiated a collaborative project with Tronox, the SAFE team of LRGP, ICS and L2n to study the lithium extraction phenomena, scale up the production of its Li-Capt® material and study its life cycle (aging and recycling)

The LiFE project, which has a total budget of €1.6 million and is partly financed by the Grand Est Region, will enable the production of the first few hundred kilograms of material and demonstrate the effectiveness of the Li-Capt® process on a pre-industrial scale. In this 24-month program coordinated by GeoLith, Tronox and GeoLith will have the mission to develop the scale-up of the production of the Li-Capt® material while the LRGP will have the objective to study the fluidics of the brines within the material and to guide GeoLith in the shaping of the material in “filter” cartridges, the ICS will be in charge of characterizing the material and studying its recycling at the end of its life cycle, the L2n for its part will study its aging.

Read the press release (attached)
Discover the Li-Capt® process in video (01 :43)

(1) LRGP (CNRS / University of Lorraine)
(2) ICS (CNRS / University of Strasbourg)