The world needs lithium to power its electrical future, but getting it is a costly and dirty business. Wastewater unicorn Gradiant thinks there might be a better way, and just launched a new company to prove it.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2024/06/24/this-industrial-spinoff-is-pulling-lithium-from-brine-to-meet-growing-battery-demand-wastewater-unicorn-gradiant/
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Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2024/06/24/this-industrial-spinoff-is-pulling-lithium-from-brine-to-meet-growing-battery-demand-wastewater-unicorn-gradiant/
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TechTranscript
00:00Today on Forbes, this industrial spinoff is pulling lithium from brine to meet growing battery demand.
00:09Lithium is hugely important to electrifying the world's vehicles, with just one car's battery requiring more than 17 pounds of it.
00:17But extracting and processing the critical mineral is both costly and tough on the environment, and the United States largely relies on China for its supply.
00:26Prakash Govindan, the co-founder and chief operating officer of wastewater startup Gradient, said,
00:43To meet that demand, Gradient, which cleans up wastewater on an industrial scale, is spinning out a new business called Alkali.
00:51That's what the LI at the end stylized to look like the symbol for lithium on the periodic table.
00:57As such, instead of mining from rock, the standalone venture plans to extract lithium from brine.
01:04Brine is the naturally occurring, extremely salty water found in a variety of regions.
01:09Then the company plans to process it for use in batteries using a technique that it developed.
01:13It expects to raise $15 to $20 million, including from Gradient itself, which will maintain a stake in the business, and to ultimately hire a new CEO to run it, this according to Govindan.
01:25The new business in lithium is an offshoot of Gradient's core operations in industrial wastewater treatment, where it works with major customers that include semiconductor giants TSMC and Micron, pharmaceutical makers Pfizer and GSK, Coca-Cola and mining firm Rio Tinto.
01:43Gradient, which has raised more than $400 million, including from billionaire John Arnold's Centaurus Capital, reached a $1 billion valuation last year.
01:53It's the rare water technology startup to hit that mark.
01:56Gradient's revenue reached $150 million last year, and it's expected to hit $350 million this year.
02:03Govindan said that the lithium business currently has four commercial customers and represents, quote, less than 10% of Gradient's revenue.
02:10Govindan, who's 40 years old, and Anurag Bajpai, who is 39 years old and the company's CEO, started the company in 2012 based on water purification research they'd done as PhD students at MIT.
02:25Today, the company has more than 1,000 installations for water treatment, removal of so-called forever chemicals, or PFAS, and lithium extraction.
02:35Gradient developed the lithium business in partnership with oil field services giant SLB, which is both an investor and a customer.
02:43SLB, formerly known as Schlumberger, set up a pilot project at its facility in Nevada in 2023.
02:50The process uses resins and membranes to more easily extract the lithium from brine, then relies on its own technology to concentrate the mineral, which ultimately is precipitated into a solid for use in batteries.
03:04This is a similar process to making rock candy from sugar water, although with many more complicated steps.
03:11The company said that its process for extracting lithium is faster and better for the environment, with both reduced carbon and water impact, compared to traditional methods of mining.
03:22Govindan said that it also has 50% lower operating costs than other methods of getting lithium from brine, which typically relies on evaporation ponds to slowly allow the lithium to become concentrated.
03:34Govindan said, quote,
03:48Global lithium consumption reached 134,000 tons in 2022, a 41% increase from 95,000 tons in 2021, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.
04:01While lithium prices have plunged over the past year, in part due to the slowing growth of electric vehicle sales in China, long-term demand is expected to rise.
04:11By 2030, more than 60% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. are expected to be plug-ins or hybrids, according to data from the public-private partnership Libridge.
04:22For full coverage, check out Amy Feldman's piece on Forbes.com.
04:27This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.