Canadian leading lithium developer E3 Lithium has completed well development and pump installation at its demonstration facility, near Olds, in Alberta, with Phase 2 now ready to start operating.

The company developed a three-phase plan with multiple goals at each phase to demonstrate commerciality of producing battery-grade lithium carbonate.

The demonstration facility is designed to prove E3’s proprietary Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology at scale.

The two main goals of Phase 2 are to complete a reservoir production test to further delineate flow through the Leduc reservoir and to collect water and gas chemistry data.

The reservoir test will inform the Reservoir Development Plan that is currently being completed and will result in a well and pipeline network design that informs well and pipeline permitting.

E3 confirms that brine and gas data collected will inform the design of the inlet and gas separation for the eventual commercial facility.

“Information collected from this work is some of the last technical data required for the feasibility study that E3 is working through for the Clearwater project, located between Red Deer and Calgary in Alberta,” E3 adds.

As is standard in the industry, the company submitted a Directive 51 application and, upon receipt of its licence, the demonstration site will begin operations, which are expected to run for eight to twelve weeks before moving to Phase 3.

Work completed at the demonstration facility to-date has been supported in part by the $5-million in federal funding provided by Emissions Reduction Alberta, E3 points out.

In parallel with Phase 2 operations, the team at E3 will be setting up for Phase 3 of its demonstration, which focusses primarily on testing DLE technology as the final phase of the demonstration plant.

Phase 3 consists of both the operation of the 30-column DLE, paired with the purification/carbonation equipment, that was successfully commissioned during Phase 1, as well as the construction and operation of a full commercial-size single DLE column.

Over the course of the summer, E3 will procure the equipment for, and build out, the single column unit, supported through the Canadian government’s Global Partnerships Initiative, with $36.5-million of funding having been conditionally approved.

While Phase 2 of the demonstration facility focusses on acquiring necessary engineering data, Phase 3 provides a real-world proof of concept for brine to battery-grade lithium carbonate production.

Phase 3 of the demo will produce nearly 100 t/y of lithium carbonate equivalent in lithium chloride that the company will use to further its offtake discussions.

Operating the DLE technology at a 1:1 scale to a commercial system, with brine moving “live” through the process, validates the key parameters to financial institutions, strategic partners, offtakers and the government, E3 says.

The company adds that this will form a critical component to secure project financing for the construction of the Clearwater project’s first phase, which will produce 12 000 t/y of lithium carbonate.