Teague Egan

What if we could extract lithium more efficiently while reducing our carbon footprint? Teague Egan, the founder and CEO of EnergyX, is working to meet the world’s growing demand for lithium while also keeping the environment in mind. Lithium is a crucial component in electric car batteries, as well as other consumer items that reduce demand for fossil fuels. Teague explains how EnergyX uses a novel extraction method to make lithium mining more efficient and economical.

In this episode, Teague discusses metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and how EnergyX uses them to triple lithium recovery rates:

• Demand for lithium is rising quickly, especially now that climate concerns and regulatory changes are generating more interest in battery-powered electric cars. For supply to keep up with demand, lithium production rates will have to rise.
• Most lithium producers use a series of conventional evaporation ponds to separate lithium from other materials in a briny liquid and achieve recovery rates of about 30% on average. EnergyX builds facilities that use metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to carry out membrane-based mechanical separation of lithium from various salts. This raises recovery rates to as high as 90% and brings down the overall cost of production.
• The EnergyX process doesn’t replace existing mining operations. Instead, it optimizes them by subjecting the brine to an extra cycle of processing between the third and fourth evaporation ponds. Users of this technology pay EnergyX a fee for every ton of lithium produced using this method.
• In addition to their work with lithium, EnergyX is also focused on solid-state battery electrolytes. Stemming from the same core technology utilized for lithium extraction, this innovation has the potential to jumpstart a new era in the battery industry, one that is safer, more efficient, and more cost effective.