Standard Lithium Ltd. (Vacouver, B.C., Canada) announced that its Hydroxide Pilot Plant located in El Dorado, Arkansas was successfully installed and commissioned in early October at the Project site. The technology is housed in a self-contained unit and takes the lithium chloride feed produced by the Company’s existing Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) Demonstration Plant; it then converts this feed directly into a lithium hydroxide solution using a novel ion-exchange process. The lithium hydroxide solution generated by the Hydroxide Pilot will be sent offsite to another location operated by the third-party vendor to complete evaporation and crystallization work to produce battery quality lithium hydroxide. This Hydroxide Pilot will be operated at the Project location for several months, and will be used by the Company to assess different technology options for lithium hydroxide production at the Company’s South West Arkansas Lithium Project.
Dr. Andy Robinson, President of Standard Lithium, commented, “The successful installation and commissioning of this Hydroxide Pilot is another example of the Company’s approach to using novel technological solutions to build a new generation of lithium plants in North America. The testing and operation of this Pilot gives our design team and project partners greater flexibility when we come to design the commercial plant at our South West Arkansas Project.”
To the Company’s knowledge, the Project location at Lanxess’ South Plant in Arkansas is the only location in North America where lithium is continuously being extracted from brine using a modern DLE process and being converted into both lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide.