Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and BHE Renewables have announced a joint venture to demonstrate and implement TerraLithium's Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) and related technologies for extracting lithium from geothermal brine.
TerraLithium, a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental, has patented DLE technologies that have the potential to process any lithium-containing brine into a responsibly sourced supply of high-purity lithium.
The joint venture has already begun a project at BHE Renewables’ Imperial Valley geothermal facility to demonstrate the feasibility of the TerraLithium DLE technology. BHE Renewables operates 10 geothermal power plants in California’s Imperial Valley, which process 50,000 gallons of lithium-rich brine per minute to produce 345 MW of clean energy.
Upon successful demonstration, BHE Renewables plans to build, own, and operate commercial lithium production facilities in California’s Imperial Valley. The joint venture also plans to license the technology and develop commercial lithium production facilities outside the Imperial Valley.
In 2021, BHE Renewables received a USD 15 million grant from the US Department of Energy to support its work in extracting lithium at the Salton Sea operations. The company is one of few players working on geothermal lithium extraction demonstration projects in the Imperial Valley.