Researchers have demonstrated an electricity-driven process that extracts lithium from geothermal brine and converts it into lithium hydroxide monohydrate, reporting roughly 91% lithium molar purity in a single integrated pathway. The work targets Salton Sea-type brines, a resource sitting beneath Southern California that has long frustrated conventional extraction methods. If the approach scales, it could short-circuit the slow, chemical-heavy refining chain that currently stands between raw brine and the cathode materials inside electric vehicle batteries.
From Brine to Battery Chemical in One Shot
Traditional lithium production from brines can rely on large evaporation ponds that may take many months to concentrate the metal, followed by chemical conversion steps. The new pathway, detailed in a peer-reviewed study in Nature Communications, replaces those steps with an electrochemical sequence that extracts, purifies, and converts lithium in a continuous process. Starting from synthetic Salton Sea-type geothermal brine, the system produced purified lithium chloride and then converted it to lithium hydroxide monohydrate at roughly 91% Li molar purity, which the authors describe as suitable for further refining toward battery-relevant specifications.
What makes the result significant is the integration. Earlier lab demonstrations had shown individual electrochemical steps, such as selective intercalation or membrane separation, working in isolation. This study chains them together so that the output of one stage feeds directly into the next without intermediate chemical treatments or thermal processing. That matters because each eliminated step removes a source of cost, waste, and delay from the supply chain. It also creates a clearer engineering target for pilot plants: a modular, electricity-driven train that can sit alongside geothermal power facilities and turn hot brine into a market-ready chemical in hours rather than months.
Competing Electrochemical Approaches and Cost Targets
The Salton Sea work is not the only electrochemical route gaining traction. Stanford researchers developed a technique called redox-couple electrodialysis that uses paired redox reactions to drive lithium ions across a membrane while rejecting competing ions like sodium and magnesium. Their estimated production cost falls between $3,500 and $4,400 per ton of high-purity lithium hydroxide, a range that would be competitive with the cheapest brine operations in South America. The Stanford approach also enables continuous operation and uses less electricity than conventional electrodialysis, two features that align well with pairing the process to renewable or geothermal power sources on-site.
A separate peer-reviewed study in thin-film membrane design describes a nanocomposite cation exchange material that embeds beta-lithium titanate nanoparticles in a polyamide skin. The membrane preferentially transports lithium ions while blocking sodium and calcium, two of the most common interferents in natural brines. Structured comparisons across direct lithium extraction pathways, including membranes, electrodialysis, and electrochemical intercalation, have been compiled in a broader engineering review that benchmarks reported extraction performance and brine chemistry data. Together, these advances suggest the field is converging on several viable electrochemical architectures rather than betting on a single winner, with cost, energy use, and compatibility with different brine chemistries likely to determine which ones reach commercial scale first.
Field Tests and Federal Funding Signal Commercial Intent
Lab results alone do not build supply chains. The clearest sign that electrochemical lithium extraction is moving toward commercial reality comes from field operations and government investment. Volt Lithium reported producing greater than 99.5% battery-grade lithium carbonate from Permian Basin brine, with its field direct lithium extraction system operating since September 17, 2024. The company’s product pathway runs from raw brine to lithium chloride concentrate and then to lithium carbonate, a sequence that is directionally similar in its stepwise concentration-and-conversion flow, though it is applied to a different brine source and described in a company release rather than an academic electrochemical chain.
On the federal side, the U.S. National Science Foundation awarded a 2025 SBIR Phase I grant of $305,000 to Electroflow Technologies for work on membrane stability in electrochemical lithium production from low-concentration brine. The award signals that Washington sees membrane durability, not just selectivity, as the technical bottleneck worth solving before these systems can run continuously at industrial scale. Early-stage federal grants like this one often precede larger Phase II awards and private co-investment, so the funding trajectory will be telling. If durability targets can be met while keeping energy use and capital costs in check, the combination of public money and field data from companies such as Volt Lithium could accelerate the jump from pilot units to full-scale plants.
Recycling Adds a Second Feedstock Lane
Electrochemistry is not limited to pulling lithium from the ground. A reactor developed at Rice University maintained an average lithium recovery rate of nearly 90% over 1,000 hours of operation while converting spent battery material into new lithium feedstock. Biswal, one of the researchers involved, described the system as simpler than existing hydrometallurgical recycling routes, which typically require strong acids and high temperatures. If both brine extraction and battery recycling can run on electricity-driven chemistry, the same fundamental platform could serve two supply streams at once, reducing dependence on any single lithium source and easing pressure on new mining projects.
Separately, researchers have shown that electrochemical methods can also bypass conventional high-temperature steps in processing lithium-bearing minerals, pointing toward a future in which ore, brine, and end-of-life batteries all feed into related electrochemical infrastructure. That convergence would not eliminate the need for mining, but it could smooth out supply volatility by making it easier to pivot between feedstocks as prices and regulations shift. For policymakers focused on securing domestic supplies, the emerging picture is less about a single breakthrough technology and more about a toolkit of electricity-driven processes that can be mixed and matched to local geology, existing industrial assets, and recycling flows.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
