Altillion is developing a platform technology that extracts and concentrates lithium from brines. The process is versatile and can be adapted to recover other metals like copper, rare earth elements (REE), magnesium, and manganese, and is able to reduce lithium concentrations in the output to a residual level of just 3 to 5 ppm. Their technology is complementary to other direct lithium extraction (DLE) methods. Altillion’s approach offers a practical solution for maximizing lithium recovery while integrating with existing technologies to manage other elements.

• ALIX, or "Advanced Liquid Ion Exchange", extracts and concentrates critical minerals from brine with expected low CAPEX and OPEX, and low footprint.

• When applied to DLE and lithium brine applications, ALIX fully concentrates lithium with no reverse osmoses (RO), no Osmosis-Assisted Reverse Osmosis (OARO), no thermal/forced evaporation, and no other dewatering equipment.

• ALIX is highly synergistic with other DLE technologies such as absorbents or ion exchange medias, as ALIX fully concentrates the lithium eluate from these technologies.

• ALIX simplifies flow sheets and minimizes process steps.

Pilot Plant & Lab

• Location: Houston, Texas, USA.

• 1,250 ft2 pilot plant.

• 3 gpm processing of brine totes.

• Synthetic & field brine processing capabilities.

• LiCl product output (option for Li2SO4).

• Full wet lab with bench testing & analytical.

Roadmap

• Pilot plant: 3 gpm feed - up and running.

• Modular demonstration equipment: 10 to 20 gpm feed.

• Commercial scale: Around 300 gpm feed.

• Altillion is a technology provider that sells commercial ALIX systems for integration into full lithium brine facilities.

• Altillion provides turnkey services for pilot testing and field demonstrations.

ALIX liquid-liquid extraction process is expected to exhibit higher overall efficiency compared to traditional solvent extraction process. These efficiency improvements come from:

• Very rapid kinetics and low residence time requirements, where lithium extraction occurs in seconds rather than minutes.

• Minimal extraction stages, enabling ALIX to perform a full extraction/concentration cycle in only 1-3 stages.

• Up to 80% reductions in chemistry requirements.

• Complete recovery and reuse of extractant liquids.

• Efficiently extracting and concentrating lithium from any relevant starting concentration, including as low as 15 mg/L lithium and as high as >3,000 mg/L lithium.

• High selectivity over other monovalent ions like potassium and boron, thus eliminating any dedicated boron removal process from a lithium brine flow sheet.

Process

• DLE Media captures the lithium.

• ALIX extracts the lithium after the DLE at a pH of 9 to 11, where it will be use soda ash or sodium hydroxide.

• Then they strip the lithium back out using an acid - such as HCl or H2SO4-.

• The eluate passes through their mixer to homogenize the solution.

• Their liquid ion is released in droplets into the system and that is how the lithium extraction occurs.

Altillion's technology can be applied to lithium extraction for different markets like electric vehicle batteries, renewable energy storage systems, and the recovery of rare earth elements and other metals.

• ALIX replaces dewatering equipment in Direct Lithium Extraction ("DLE") flow sheets to fully concentrate DLE lithium eluate.

• ALIX also has applications in other metal extraction and mining applications where liquid-liquid extraction is applied, such as copper mining and boron extraction.