Boston-based Lithios, which is developing technology for sustainable lithium extraction, announced that it has secured a total of $10 million in seed financing. The company said it would use the new funding to scale the production of their Advanced Lithium Extraction (ALE) technology, which allows for tapping into a more environmentally sustainable, lower cost supply of lithium, an element that is currently in very high demand for batteries powering electric vehicles and other devices. The company also announced that it had secured an additional $2 million in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank.

Considered one of the most important raw materials for the transition away from fossil fuels, lithium is expected to experience a worldwide shortage as early as 2025. To meet global electric vehicle and energy market demand, 7 million tons of lithium carbonate will be required by 2040, eight times more than the current supply. Anticipating the impending shortfall, lithium resource owners are seeking solutions to overcome bottlenecks including infrastructure constraints in remote locations and lack of affordable processing technologies for high-contaminant sources.

Lithium is found in hard rock, and extracted by crushing the rock, and in brine sources, typically dry lakebeds or evaporated salt flats. It can also be directly extracted from brines, with lithium produced via nascent direct lithium extraction (DLE) methods. In either case, extraction of lithium from these sources is generally energy– and resource – intensive, requiring large amounts of water.

Lithios’ method seeks to extract lithium from brine sources with far less energy and water required. In addition, the company said, its system will enable extraction of lithium from brine sources that current methods are unable to access. Lithios’ solution could also help access lithium in a wider variety of geographic locations including the U.S., as China currently dominates global lithium production.

Lithios said that it would leverage the funding to scale its R&D, manufacturing, and operations, and accelerate the development of commercial projects to produce thousands of tons of lithium carbonate annually.

Co-Founded by CEO Mo Alkhadra, and Chief Scientist, Martin Z Bazant, Lithios provides ALE technology that unlocks more than 85% of known but currently inaccessible lithium from brine sources, making the lithium recovery process for low-grade brines up to twice as cost-effective as emerging DLE methods, according to the company. The technology will enable miners, operators, and the broader battery supply chain to unlock sources of lithium previously considered uneconomical and inaccessible due to difficult contaminant profiles and resource constraints, Lithios said.

Mo Alkhadra, Lithios co-founder and CEO, said:

“If we want to electrify our world, we must start with electrifying the lithium extraction process. As we enter this next phase of rapid growth, we are grateful for the support of our investors, whose expertise in scaling companies across the battery value chain bolsters our efforts to create a more sustainable and effective lithium extraction technology to enable an electric future.”

The round was led by climate tech venture capital firm Clean Energy Ventures, with participation from strategic venture groups TechEnergy Ventures and GS Futures, along with Lowercarbon Capital and MassCEC.

Daniel Goldman, co-founder and Managing Partner at Clean Energy Ventures, said:

“Today’s lithium extraction approaches are not only environmentally taxing but produce at a quantity insufficient to meet growing demand from the EV market. After assessing dozens of new lithium extraction technologies, we believe Lithios’s ALE approach addresses serious pain points for customers across the entire lithium value chain and brings a much-needed step-change improvement to recover lithium from contaminated and forsaken sources.”