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Vulcan produces first battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate

battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate

Vulcan produces first battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate

Karlsruhe, January 13, 2025. Vulcan Energy has produced the first lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) in the Central Lithium Electrolysis Optimization Plant (CLEOP) in the industrial park in Frankfurt-Höchst that meets the purity requirements for the use of the raw material in lithium-ion batteries. It is the first production of battery-grade LHM that takes place entirely in Europe, from the extraction of the raw material to processing into the final product. The precursor is extracted from the thermal water of the Upper Rhine Graben in Vulcan’s first optimization plant, LEOP, using direct lithium extraction by adsorption (A-DLE) and then further processed into the final product LHM in Frankfurt-Höchst. The prerequisite for this is a high-purity lithium chloride concentrate, which the company has been extracting since last year in the optimization plant in Landau, Rhineland-Palatinate. The entire production process takes place without the use of fossil fuels and thus has the lowest carbon footprint in the world. This enables one of the most sustainable and cost-efficient lithium supply chains in the world.

Establishing a domestic and sustainable supply chain for lithium in Europe is not only an important step to strengthen Europe’s raw material independence, but also to further advance the green mobility transition. The production of Vulcan’s first battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate follows just a few weeks after the optimization plant starts operations in November 2024. The lithium product will now be used in qualification processes already underway with Vulcan’s offtake partners from the European automotive and battery industries, including Stellantis, Renault, LG and Umicore. At the same time, the company is continuing to push ahead with the construction of the plants for the first phase of the project. In this first project phase, “Lionheart”, Vulcan aims to produce around 24,000 tonnes of LHM per year, which is roughly enough to manufacture around 500,000 electric vehicles. The commercial production plant intended for this purpose, like the optimization plant, will be built in the Höchst industrial park and will therefore be in close proximity to Vulcan’s customers.

Cris Moreno, Managing Director and CEO of Vulcan Energy, commented:

Congratulations to the entire Vulcan team on the first production of battery grade LHM from our optimization plant.

“This is an important milestone for Vulcan and the final step in implementing the first fully domestic and integrated supply chain in Europe producing battery grade LHM from local sources. I am very proud of the entire Vulcan operations team who have managed to produce battery grade LHM in a very short time since the plant started production in November. This underlines Vulcan’s position as a leading lithium and renewable energy project in Europe.”

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