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Vulcan Energy aims to become the world’s first dual lithium chemicals and renewable energy producer. Seeking to supply the European battery electric vehicle industry in Europe. Lithium is extracted from geothermal fluid, which is additionally harnessed for heat and power.
The Vulcan Energy Zero Carbon LithiumTM Project addresses two major challenges arising from climate change by providing baseload renewable energy and battery-grade Lithium Hydroxide Monohydrate (LHM). The Vulcan approach aims to decrease European dependence from Lithium imports. And it meets the imperative to produce energy and to extract raw materials with a much lower environmental impact. Geothermal fluid from the Upper Rhine Graben (in France and Germany) features Lithium concentrations up to 200 mg/l with the target reservoir ranging in depths between 3000 and 4000 m. Reservoirs are accessed using numerous hydrothermal well-doublets enabling hydrothermal circularity.
The first phase of this integrated project is currently being realized in Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany). Commercial production capacity is targeting up to 300 GWh power, 250 GWh heat and 24 kto of LHM per year. This paper highlights technical challenges such as corrosion and scaling and how to control those. Furthermore, the adsorption-type direct lithium extraction method performing robustly over 1000 cycles is described.