Funding Selections: FY22 AMMTO-GTO Lithium Extraction and Conversion from Geothermal Brines

Offices: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies (AMMTO) and the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO)
Funding Amount: $10.9 Million 
FOA Number: DE-FOA-0002823

Description 

On July 24, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $10.9 million for 10 projects across nine states that will advance innovative technologies to extract and convert battery-grade lithium from geothermal brine sources in the United States. This work will increase America’s access to cost-effective, domestic sources of this critical material needed for batteries for stationary storage and electric vehicles.  

These projects are being managed in collaboration by EERE’s AMMTO and GTO. The projects add to a portfolio of recent investments such AMMTO’s Critical Materials Institute – an Energy Innovation Hub led by Ames National Laboratory and GTO’s Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize

These projects will also further develop a DOE-led innovation ecosystem around lithium production as project participants will be invited to participate in the Lithium RD&D Virtual Center. The Center coordinates investment activity across industry, government, and academia.

Topic Areas 

The 10 projects were selected from two topic areas: 

  1. Field Validation of Lithium Hydroxide Production from Geothermal Brines: Pilot or demonstration projects to validate cost-effective, innovative lithium extraction and lithium hydroxide conversion technologies.  
  2. Applied Research & Development for Direct Lithium Extraction from Geothermal Brines: Research and development projects to advance emerging direct lithium extraction (DLE) process technologies to increase efficiency, reduce waste generation, and/or reduce cost of DLE.

Selected Projects 

Award and cost share amounts are subject to change, pending negotiations. 

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