Pure Lithium Secures Funding to Scale Lithium Metal Anode Production
Pure Lithium Corporation, a vertically integrated lithium metal battery technology company, has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technology Office to scale the production of lithium metal anodes using recycled lithium metal. The initiative is being carried out in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory.
The project focuses on recovering lithium metal waste produced by certain industrial processes in the U.S. and repurposing it for battery applications. By utilizing this waste stream, Pure Lithium aims to establish a closed-loop, fully domestic lithium supply. The company’s patent-pending technology will be used to convert recycled lithium metal into high-purity anodes for lithium metal vanadium oxide batteries.
"The opportunity to extract value from a waste stream utilizing technology that complements our large portfolio of patents was one we could not pass up," said Emilie Bodoin, Founder and CEO of Pure Lithium.
Pure Lithium is led by Bodoin, an inventor and lithium expert, along with MIT Emeritus Professor Donald R. Sadoway, who serves as the company’s full-time Chief Scientific Officer. The company’s novel "Brine to Battery" technology combines lithium extraction from brines with anode production, offering a cost-effective alternative to conventional lithium metal production.
Brine to Battery directly electrodeposits 99.9% pure lithium metal onto copper from widely available brine sources, producing a battery anode in a single step at a fraction of the cost of existing methods. The company’s proprietary polymer membrane, which conducts only lithium, protects the lithium metal anode from water. This approach differs from direct lithium extraction (DLE), which cannot produce lithium metal.
The lithium metal anodes developed by Pure Lithium serve as the core component of its lithium metal vanadium oxide battery. The battery is designed to outperform conventional lithium-ion technology in terms of cost, safety, and performance while eliminating the need for graphite, cobalt, nickel, and manganese.
