en.Wedoany.com Reported - Chemical producer Nobian (Utrecht, Netherlands), together with Back to Battery, the University of Twente, and Demcon Suster, has launched the LiSA alliance, aiming to scale up a circular, low-carbon lithium refining route in Europe. The project has received a €2 million grant from the Dutch government through the TKI Energy program, with a total investment of €3.6 million. The partners will conduct a three-year pilot project in the Netherlands. The Institute for Sustainable Process Technology (ISPT) will coordinate the pilot and disseminate the results.

The LiSA project will refine lithium from European sources, including geothermal brines and recycled batteries, converting it into battery-grade lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate through a more energy-efficient process. The core is Nobian's crystallization technology, which combines electrochemistry with salt-based crystallization to convert lithium chloride into high-quality battery materials. In this process, a lithium chloride solution is mixed with caustic soda, and after two crystallization steps, lithium hydroxide and sodium chloride are separated. The sodium chloride is then reused in Nobian's existing chlor-alkali electrolyzers to produce caustic soda, which is returned to the crystallization process. Compared to traditional lithium refining methods, this process is expected to save approximately 50% energy, reduce CO2 emissions by about 50%, while being cost-effective, using less water, and generating fewer waste streams. The project will develop pilot-scale research facilities to test different lithium raw material sources, optimize process conditions, and evaluate methods for managing impurities in recycled lithium streams.

Lithium is crucial for electric mobility, energy storage, and the energy transition, but Europe remains heavily dependent on imported lithium batteries, with supply chains vulnerable to geopolitical risks and price fluctuations, and insufficient recovery of valuable materials from end-of-life batteries. By directly testing recycled lithium in the refining process and integrating European-sourced lithium provided by Back to Battery, the LiSA project connects refining and recycling in a circular value chain, aiming to lay the foundation for a circular lithium ecosystem in the Netherlands and Europe, supporting strategic autonomy and a sustainable battery industry.

Coert van Lare, Director of Renewable Energy and Circular Innovation at Nobian, stated that LiSA leverages Nobian's electrochemical and crystallization capabilities to address Europe's critical raw material challenges, scaling up a more energy-efficient route to produce battery-grade lithium, thereby reducing CO2 emissions and supporting EU critical raw material targets. Markus Mingenbach, Senior Vice President of Chlor-Alkali and Chloromethanes at Nobian, added that LiSA applies Nobian's salt chemistry, chlor-alkali expertise, and industrial capabilities to the battery chemicals value chain, creating a scalable pathway that supports a lower-carbon, more competitive, and strategically autonomous battery value chain in Europe. Steven Lans, CEO of Back to Battery, noted that the two parties generate synergies based on similar chemical principles, recovering critical raw materials from end-of-life batteries and closing the reagent loop, demonstrating how innovative chemistry can strengthen the Dutch chemical cluster. The LiSA project is part of Nobian's broader battery chemicals program, which also includes collaborations on sodium-based battery technologies such as SLDBatt and STARBATCH, aimed at accelerating the supply of sustainable battery-grade chemicals in Europe.

The LiSA alliance brings together industry, technology, and research partners. Nobian contributes its electrochemical, crystallization, and industrial scaling capabilities, using its own technology to convert lithium chloride from multiple sources into battery-grade lithium products. Back to Battery provides lithium-containing recycled brine from end-of-life batteries for testing recycled feedstocks. Demcon Suster is responsible for designing and building laboratory-scale research facilities. The University of Twente supports modeling, optimization, and scale-up research. ISPT coordinates the project and shares insights with other industry players. Together, the partners will test lithium feedstocks from geothermal sources and recycled batteries, produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide, and optimize the process to facilitate scale-up, paving the way for future large-scale battery chemical production in the Netherlands and Europe.