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Building up strategic reserves of Lithium

LiCORNE, which stands for "Lithium recovery and battery-grade materials production from European resources," is a Horizon Europe project funded by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). It benefits from an interdisciplinary and complementary consortium, encompassing the entire value chain. The project's primary objective is to establish the first ever Lithium (Li) supply chain in Europe, increasing the EU Li processing and refining capacity for the production of battery-grade chemicals from ores, geothermal and continental brines, tailings and off-specification cathode materials (waste).

The LiCORNE concept – 14 different ground-breaking technologies

Discover the objectives

Twelve-month update on progress

LiCORNE: 12-month update on the technological progress

Marking the project’s first anniversary, the LiCORNE partners gathered in Athens to evaluate the progress achieved thus far. The meeting was hosted by the National Technical University of Athens and it unfolded over two days.

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Extraction of concentrates, waste cathode material, ore and tailings

Using alkaline leaching process on spodumene concentrate, the maximum extraction of Li achieved thus far reached 75%. The leachate transformation, even after the filtration step, hinders the sample analysis and further processing. To overcome this challenge, (...)

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Recovery as battery-grade chemicals: Gas-Diffusion Electrocrystallisation of brines and organic/aqueous Li-solutions

VITO employs an innovative process known as Gas-Diffusion Electrocrystallisation (GDEx) technology to achieve the direct extraction of Li, that leverages gas-diffusion electrodes to orchestrate a meticulously controlled chemical transformation.

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New membrane-free technique for the selective separation of lithium and sodium

Researchers at Fraunhofer ICT recently attended the German Geothermal Conference in Essen (Germany), where they submitted a scientific poster that portrays the characteristics of the Li resources identified in the geothermal brines in the Rhine Graben region and the challenges raised by the Li extraction.

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On-going clustering activities: Raw materials from geothermal fluids: occurrence, enrichment, extraction

Within the collaborative framework of the Cluster Hub “Production of raw materials for batteries from European resources”, the LiCORNE consortium members had the opportunity to encounter another EU-funded initiative – CRM-geothermal project.

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Policy highlights

New IEA Report: Clean Energy Technologies Driving Demand for Lithium

In July 2023, International Energy Agency (IEA) released its inaugural “Critical Minerals Market Review”, along with their new online data explorer. Between 2017 and 2022, the demand of lithium (Li) tripled, primarily due to the energy sector’s reliance on it.

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IEA’s ‘blueprint’: Six strategic actions for secure, sustainable and responsible critical minerals supply chains

Late September 2023, ministers, industry leaders, investors, international organisations and civil society convened at International Energy Agency (IEA) headquarters for first-of-its-kind summit to discuss the future of critical minerals.

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Events

Materials for batteries Cluster Annual Meeting

16 November 2023, Brussels

Raw Materials Week 2023

13-17 November 2023, Brussels

Consortium members

Meet the partners