Oak Ridge researchers detail fast, low‑chemical direct lithium extraction; technology licensed to Element 3

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher Dr. Pon Baranthemum presented an aluminum‑hydroxide sorbent for direct lithium extraction (DLE) that the lab says offers rapid recovery and a high lithium capacity, and he said the technology has been licensed to Element 3 for commercial demonstration.

Dr. Baranthemum, a corporate fellow in Oak Ridge’s Chemical Sciences Division, said the laboratory developed a lithiating aluminum‑hydroxide material that selectively takes up lithium from brines and can be regenerated with water. He summarized laboratory results showing a lithium capacity of about 37.8 mg of lithium per gram of sorbent and extraction times ranging from minutes to days, in contrast to months‑long solar‑evaporation approaches commonly used in some South American brine operations.

The licensing action and awards provide commercialization context. Dr. Baranthemum said Oak Ridge received an R&D 100 award in 2024 for the technology and a Federal Laboratory Consortium award for technology transfer; he said the laboratory licensed the process to Element 3 and showed imagery of a Texas demonstration plant where Element 3 has started site work. Oak Ridge staff and Element 3 partners are using a three‑tank flow arrangement described by Dr. Baranthemum—lithiation, wash and delithiation—at demonstration scale.

On process chemistry, Dr. Baranthemum said the aluminum‑hydroxide sorbent forms a lithium‑aluminum layered compound during lithiation; water or mild aqueous treatment can dethiate the sorbent and recover lithium chloride, which can subsequently be converted to lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide with downstream steps. He emphasized the approach can reduce use of strong acids and bases in the extraction step and that some process variants use only water for regeneration.

During the webinar’s Q&A, an attendee asked about operational flow rate; Dr. Baranthemum responded that the demonstration flowability for the shown sorbent rig was around 25 gallons per minute. On selectivity, he said the sorbent preferentially removes lithium over sodium and potassium and primarily interacts with multivalent cations (which must often be pre‑removed by filtration, ion exchange or precipitation prior to DLE).

What this means and next steps: Oak Ridge presents the aluminum‑hydroxide approach as a low‑chemical, high‑capacity DLE route that has moved from laboratory validation through awards and into licensing for commercial testing. Slides and a recording of the webinar will be shared with registrants; Oak Ridge staff provided commercialization contacts for companies or researchers interested in sample testing or licensing discussions.

Provenance: This article is based on the presenter’s DLE discussion and licensing comments in the webinar (topic begins at the DLE introduction and continues through the licensing and demonstration plant remarks).