- Offices: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies (AMMTO) and the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO)
- Funding Amount: $10.9 Million
- FOA Number: DE-FOA-0002823
Description
On July 24, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $10.9 million for 10 projects across nine states that will advance innovative technologies to extract and convert battery-grade lithium from geothermal brine sources in the United States. This work will increase America’s access to cost-effective, domestic sources of this critical material needed for batteries for stationary storage and electric vehicles to meet the Biden–Harris Administration’s goals of 50% electric vehicle adoption by 2030 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
These projects are being managed in collaboration by EERE’s AMMTO and GTO. The projects add to a portfolio of recent investments such as AMMTO’s Critical Materials Institute — an Energy Innovation Hub led by Ames National Laboratory and GTO’s Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize.
These projects will also further develop a DOE-led innovation ecosystem around lithium production as project participants will be invited to participate in the Lithium RD&D Virtual Center. The Center coordinates investment activity across industry, government, and academia.
Topic Areas
The 10 projects were selected from two topic areas:
- Field Validation of Lithium Hydroxide Production from Geothermal Brines: Pilot or demonstration projects to validate cost-effective, innovative lithium extraction and lithium hydroxide conversion technologies.
- Applied Research & Development for Direct Lithium Extraction from Geothermal Brines: Research and development projects to advance emerging direct lithium extraction (DLE) process technologies to increase efficiency, reduce waste generation, and/or reduce cost of DLE.
Selected Projects
Award and cost share amounts are subject to change, pending negotiations.
More Information
News update from Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy.
Featured image from the U.S. DOE.
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