PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Vulcan Energy Resources has developed, tested and demonstrated its own in-house lithium extraction sorbent, dubbed VULSORB, for lithium extraction from the Upper Rhine Valley brine field and the Zero Carbon lithium project.

The company said on Monday that the manufacturing process for VULSORB had been shown to be environmentally benign, with many of the reagents recycled and with opportunities for Vulcan to use its own produced lithium to manufacture future sorbent once in production, thus further reducing Vulcan’s carbon footprint and operating costs while fulfilling the European Union’s circular economy goals.

“In contrast to other developers who are increasingly using sorption in their developments but often outsourcing to external technology providers, Vulcan is uniquely positioned as both a lithium extraction technology provider, as well as a lithium chemicals and renewable energy developer,” Vulcan MD and CEO Dr Francis Wedin said.

“Until now, there have been no commercially available sorbents for lithium extraction manufactured in Europe, thus making the region dependent on foreign supply chains. VULSORB will enable Europe to extract lithium from its own brine fields, without being exposed to geopolitical risk. Vulcan will assess the potential of VULSORB to be used in other lithium brines in Europe and globally, particularly renewably-heated brines that can be used to extract lithium with net zero carbon footprint and zero fossil fuels, in line with Vulcan’s strict mandate to be carbon neutral.

“The successful production of VULSORB together with the recent test results of the highest grade, lowest impurity lithium hydroxide to date from our pilot plant, complement the continued works on our containerised Sorption demonstration plant and on our Phase 1 definitive feasibility study (DFS), as our DFS nears conclusion in support of our target of first commercial production from our Zero Carbon lithium project in late 2025.”