Lithium industry will boost freshwater recycling: Lithium mining companies are looking to recycle more freshwater as they develop direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies, Reuters reports. DLE is a rising industry that aims to revamp the lithium extraction process so it is in line with the green energy transition. Lithium production is also essential to the low-carbon economy, particularly for energy storage and EV batteries.

The industry has great potential: DLE uses less land and resources to process Lithium than standard methods of extraction. New DLE tech recovers 98.5% of the freshwater used during the production process and seeks to boost the recovery rates further, Executive Chairman of International Battery Metals John Burba told Reuters. Global lithium demand is projected to increase 40x by 2040 on the back of its heavy use in the green energy transition and the industry is expected to see annual revenues grow up to USD 10 bn over the next decade as DLE companies aim to supply lithium for EV batteries within hours or days, unlike the months it can take for the usual water-intensive evaporation and mining methods of production.

And the targets are clear: "Getting it down to maybe five or 10 or 15 mts of freshwater per ton of lithium is kind of where you want to be," EnergyX CEO Teague Egan told Reuters. The company — which counts General Motors as an investor — said it can currently recover up to 90% of its freshwater. Controlled Thermal Resources is developing a geothermal lithium project in California's Salton Sea to recycle a gallon of water at least 8x and produce water via steam from its geothermal power process, CEO Rod Colwell told Reuters.

But there are challenges: Some DLE tech require around 180 mt of water to produce a single mt of lithium, hindering the expansion of the method in arid areas, the newswire writes. "If we cannot do a good job of recycling that water and reducing our water footprint, we're going to get crushed," Burba said.