The strategic technology collaborations have been agreed with two research labs located at the University of Alberta (U of A) campus in Edmonton, Alberta. They involve the Advanced Water Research Lab (AWRL), which is supervised by Dr. Mohtada Sadrzadeh, Ph.D., P.Eng, and the lab of Dr. Hongbo Zeng, Ph.D., P.Eng., of the U of A Chemical and Materials Engineering Department (the Zeng Lab).

“We are proud to collaborate with AWRL and the Zeng Lab to help address the urgent problem of responsible water management for the energy business today while expanding our access to oilfield brines that offer an economic source of lithium for the clean energy transition of tomorrow,” commented Alex Wylie, President and CEO of Volt.

The collaborations are designed to leverage nanotechnology and water processing expertise to remove contaminants from oilfield brine to be used for the company’s proprietary direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology. Volt views the collaborations as another component of its advancing efforts to achieve commercial and economic extraction of lithium from produced water.

By establishing mutually beneficial relationships with oil and gas companies, Volt gains access to oilfield brines for lithium extraction purposes, while the oil and gas producers can benefit from an economic and ESG-friendly solution to derive value from their produced oilfield water. Volt aims to provide innovative and novel approaches to responsible lithium development in North America using Canadian-based research and development.

Source: Global Mining Review