Energy Exploration Technologies has a mission to become a worldwide leader in the global transition to sustainable energy. Founded in 2018, the company is fundamentally changing the way humanity is powering our world and storing clean energy with breakthrough direct lithium extraction and processing technologies, as well as more effective battery and energy storage solutions.
Teague Egan
Chief Executive Officer
Lithium demand is already high and is growing year over year. Over the next 10-20 years, lithium will be the most important natural resource in the world. As our society transitions to a fully sustainable future, EnergyX will tackle the hardest problems for the production of lithium and many aspects of energy storage.
A GLOBAL THREAT
With global warming on the rise and many environments in a current state of crisis, there is a high demand for innovation in the energy materials sector. The US Government has placed lithium at the top of the List of Critical Minerals 2018, and it is a high priority for the Department of Defense and Department of Energy.
Over the past several thousand years, scientists calculated that the earth’s natural carbon emissions system (volcanoes) has emitted approximately 650 million tons of CO₂ per year on average. This is a combination of highly active volcanoes, seeping dormant volcanoes, and volcanic mid-ocean ridges. Last year, humans emitted 29 billion tons of CO₂ into our atmosphere.
Developing clean and renewable energy solutions is critical to avert the current rapid deterioration of our precious atmosphere due to fossil fuel and carbon emissions.
Environmental Impact
For every single (1) ton of lithium utilized, the following CO₂ emissions are eliminated. EnergyX has done calculations according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard emission averages.
The Energy Transition
Right now, we are witnessing a global shift to sustainable energy. Sustainable energy is defined as generated from sources that are naturally replenishing or inexhaustible, but are limited in availability due to time. For example, sunlight is a renewable energy source, but we only get a certain number of hours of sunlight in a day. While we can count on the sun rising every day, unfortunately this energy can’t be used during the night without storage. The same goes for energy created by wind, a natural renewable source. If there is no wind at a given time, no energy is being generated from that source.
Fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal) are not renewable or sustainable energy resources; they are limited with the amount in the ground. Also the energy generated from fossil fuels is created by combustion or burning of the material creating CO₂ emissions harmful to our atmosphere. We are in the midst of a global energy transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources that will curb the devastating effects of global warming and climate change from CO₂ emissions.
Growing Storage Need
Over the next 10 to 20 years, lithium will become one of the most highly demanded natural resources in the world. It will replace fossil fuels as the leading renewable energy storage source, paving a path forward to a sustainable future. Right now, batteries and battery materials are the bottleneck to the EV revolution, electric mobility and storage for renewable wind and solar energy, which are intermittent sources of generation.
Lithium In Everyday Items
Lithium-ion batteries are currently in every cell phone, laptop, tablet, and power tool. Now we are starting to see a massive amount of lithium batteries put towards electric vehicles. Goldman Sachs estimates that a Tesla Model S with a 70kWh battery uses 63 kilograms of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) – more than the amount of lithium in 10,000 cell phones. Large grid scale storage and home battery storage are becoming popular uses of lithium as well. Maybe soon there will be battery powered airplanes…
Electric Cars in the World
For every 1% increase in battery electric vehicle (BEV) market penetration, there is an increase in lithium demand by around 70,000 tonnes LCE/year. The of sales in Electric Vehicles, according to BHP, is exponentially increasing up to 10-50% by 2030, and 50-100% by 2050 per year of all vehicles sold.
INTRODUCING LiTAS™
EnergyX’s patented LiTAS™ technology is a disruptive approach to lithium production that vastly improves the current natural evaporation methods by introducing cutting edge mechanical extraction processes. The problem with the current natural evaporation methods is that it takes a long time (18 months average), has low recovery rates (~30%) and has big environmental consequences such as gigantic footprints and high water usage. LiTAS™ recovers up to 90% of available lithium in a much more sustainable-friendly manner.
EnergyX’s LiTAS™ technology is a suite of lithium selective mechanisms that incorporates proprietary mixed matrix membranes, which can be applied to a variety of customer brine resources. LiTAS™ utilizes electrodialysis to move lithium concentrated brines through its membranes, and has designed a patented portfolio for proprietary combination technologies around this approach. Ultimately LiTAS™ provides the most economic lithium extraction process to our customers.
