Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Vulcan Energy (VUL) successfully develops its own in-house lithium extraction sorbent VULSORB from its projects in Germany
- The sorbent technology has been tested and showed higher performance and lower water consumption compared to commercially available sorbents around the world
- Until now, there haven’t been any commercially available sorbents for lithium extraction manufactured in Europe, making the region dependent on foreign supply chains
- Thus, Vulcan has selected VULSORB as its first choice of sorbent for lithium extraction with production targeted for Q4 2025
- Shares in Vulcan are up 2.45 per cent, trading at $7.96 as of 2:54 pm AEDT
Vulcan Energy (VUL) has developed its own in-house lithium extraction sorbent called “VULSORB” for sustainable lithium extraction.
The company has already undertaken testing with VULSORB demonstrating higher performance and lower water consumption for lithium extraction in Vulcan’s pilot plant compared to commercially available sorbents.
The manufacturing process was shown to be “environmentally benign”, with many of the reagents recycled and with opportunities for Vulcan to use its own lithium to make future sorbent once in production. As a result, this would further reduce Vulcan’s carbon footprint and operating costs while fulfilling the European Union’s circular economy goals.
“Until now, there have been no commercially available sorbents for lithium extraction manufactured in Europe, thus making the region dependent on foreign supply chains,” Managing Director and CEO Francis Wedin said.
“VULSORB will enable Europe to extract lithium from its own brine fields, without being exposed to geopolitical risk.
“Vulcan will assess the potential of VULSORB to be used in other lithium brines in Europe and globally, particularly renewably-heated brines that can be used to extract lithium with net zero carbon footprint and zero fossil fuels, in line with Vulcan’s strict mandate to be carbon neutral.”
The company selected VULSORB as its first choice of sorbent for lithium extraction in its planned phase one commercial development with production targeted for Q4 2025.
Also, Vulcan confirmed it will continue to test other sorbents from commercial suppliers to provide further options, and for potential use in future phases of development.
Shares in Vulcan were up 2.45 per cent, trading at $7.96 as of 2:54 pm AEDT.
