LiTHOS has applied for a $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to upgrade its 55,000 square-foot plant in Bessemer to produce lithium hydroxide and create hundreds of jobs, the Canada-based company announced.
Lithium is among one of the world’s most in-demand metals due to aggressive ambitious electrification efforts to limit CO2 emissions, LiTHOS said in a news release. This global demand is underpinned by the adoption of EVs and the installation of hundreds of gigawatts of intermittent solar power generation capacity requiring partial battery storage solutions.
The company said the application has received written support from U.S. Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville; U.S. Reps. Terri A. Sewell and Gary Palmer; Alabama Mobility and Power Center; the University of Alabama, and the City of Bessemer, Economic and Community Development Department.
Awards are anticipated to be announced in May.
“We are excited to extend and expand our relationship with the U.S. Department of Energy and use this additional grant funding to accelerate pilot scale production of Lithium hydroxide from the Bessemer complex,” said CEO Scott Taylor. “The requirement for the Bessemer complex was driven by substantial incoming, unsolicited customer demand for bespoke conditioning and pre-treatment processing prior to Direct Lithium Extraction. We now can deliver near real-time ICP fluid sampling results for visiting customers to validate and verify our AcQUA technology on their reservoir brines.
“We are grateful for the support we received from the Senate, Congress, the University of Alabama, and the City of Bessemer.”
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