Captura and ElectraLith Enter Five-Year Direct Lithium Extraction Partnership

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On August 18, U.S. electrochemical technology company Captura and Australian direct lithium extraction company ElectraLith entered into a strategic partnership to integrate Captura's bipolar membrane electrodialysis technology into ElectraLith's direct lithium extraction and refining process. Under the conditional collaboration arrangement, ElectraLith intends to purchase bipolar membrane electrodialysis stacks from Captura over an initial five-year term.

The partnership centers on the DLE-R direct lithium extraction and refining technology developed by ElectraLith. The process is built around electrochemical separation and is designed to complete lithium extraction and refining in a single modular process. ElectraLith states that DLE-R can process lithium-bearing resources from various sources, targeting battery-grade lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate with purity exceeding 99.5%, while reducing the need for subsequent standalone refining steps. Performance attributes such as water-free and chemical-free operation, as well as the ability to be powered by renewable energy, still require further validation through commercial-scale pilots.

Captura's bipolar membrane electrodialysis platform is primarily responsible for ion separation and conversion. The technology was initially developed for the company's direct ocean carbon capture system and has since been extended to applications including direct lithium extraction, seawater desalination, wastewater resource recovery, and energy storage. Captura operates a membrane stack production facility in California, and ElectraLith has become the first major commercial customer for its electrodialysis platform.

Equipment procurement has already commenced ahead of the strategic partnership. In June 2026, ElectraLith purchased Captura membrane stacks for two commercial-scale DLE-R pilot units, which are expected to be commissioned in early 2027. The pilots will be used to validate processing capacity, energy consumption, and product purity when the membrane stacks are integrated with the DLE-R process, and to provide operational data for scaling up equipment configurations.

ElectraLith had previously completed proof-of-concept for the DLE-R process and secured AUD 27.5 million in funding in 2025 for technology development and field pilots. The company's early plans included deploying three pilot units under different brine conditions; Reuters reporting at the time indicated that the technology still needed to address the challenge of maintaining membrane material performance when scaled up in large-scale projects.

Following operational validation of the two commercial-scale pilots, ElectraLith plans to place additional orders for Captura membrane stacks and advance the deployment of DLE-R technology in Chile, Argentina, Australia, and the United States. The company has set a target of 2028 for multi-site commercial deployment, and has not yet entered batch commercial operations at this stage.