Eramet selected Eurodia to industrialize the extraction of sustainable lithium

PRESS RELEASE

Eurodia is a world specialist in tailor-made and eco-efficient liquid purification solutions. Eurodia has been selected to industrialize the innovative lithium extraction process, developed by Eramet, a French mining and metallurgical group, and deployed on its Argentinian mining deposit.

This French success positions Eurodia as a driving force on the road to energy transition and electric mobility.

A revolution in extraction

After 10 years of collaboration with the teams of Eramet’s research and innovation center (Trappes, Yvelines) and the manufacture of a pilot for the process of extraction of lithium on a pre-industrial scale, Eurodia is now entrusted with the implementation of an industrial scale (design and realization) of the lithium extraction parts developed by Eramet, within the framework of the Centenario-Ratones project (province of Salta, Argentina).

The adaptation of the technologies developed by Eurodia to the needs of Eramet’s innovative process makes it a key part of the extraction system that meets the highest environmental and production standards.

The Eramet process combines direct extraction in salar brine, its concentration and purification reduce the production time to a few hours and increase the lithium recovery to more than 90% at this stage. These performances are far superior to traditional extraction methods by solar evaporation, which require 12 to 24 months for a yield of around 40 to 50%.

The benefit is also environmental, since the process must make it possible to pump half as much brine, to permit reinjection of the water into the salar, and minimize the consumption of fresh water with a recycling rate of more than 60%.

Lithium, a key resource for the eco-energy transition

Located in the Andes Cordillera, at an altitude of 3,800 m, the Centenario-Ratones salars are home to thousands of tons of lithium- resources. Also called white gold, lithium is today an essential material for the energy transition, for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, the global needs are rising sharply due to the growth of the electric vehicle market. “Increasing and accelerating the production of very high-quality lithium to meet this demand, while producing in a sustainable manner, with respect for the environment and populations: these are two major industrial challenges. The process developed by Eramet responds to this and Eurodia is participating in its industrialization”, analyzes Mathieu Bailly, President of Eurodia. After its commissioning scheduled for 2024, the Centenario-Ratones industrial site should reach an annual production of 24,000 tons of lithium carbonate.

The sooner the industry lessens its footprint, the further it will map its future

“A pioneer in process and technological research on lithium, the Eurodia Group has been active on the market for almost two decades. As part of Eramet’s Argentinian project, Eurodia is putting its expertise at the service of ore recovery, but our area of expertise also extends to the purification and recovery of lithium, which will be a major challenge for the circular economy in the coming years“, explains Mathieu Bailly, President of Eurodia. “This experience, our advanced technological mastery and our expertise in mechanical design have been put to use for Eramet, which we have been supporting since 2010.

We are proud of our collaboration with Eramet, a world-class French mining and metallurgical group, who shares our vision of the industry of the future: a responsible industry, based on the rational exploitation of the Earth’s resources, serving a virtuous eco-energy transition. »

Press Contact

Magali Triano +33 6 20 70 11 09 – presse@bleu-tomate.fr

About EURODIA: committed talents for an inspiring purification industry

Founded in 1988 and now chaired by Mathieu Bailly, EURODIA Industrie SAS is the world specialist in customized, ecoefficient industrial liquid purification processes. Established near Aix-en-Provence, the Group innovates, designs, develops, and installs its solutions throughout the world, for the food industry (dairy/cheese, sugar and wine sectors)and the eco-energy transition industries (biomass, lithium, water reuse). Because we define performance in the right balance between technology and people, Eurodia is growing a strong community of skills of more than a hundred men and women, deployed in France, the United States (AMERIDIA, Napa, California) and Brazil (EEDB, based in Sao Paulo). Guaranteeing the highest quality of purified fluids at the lowest energy cost and with the lowest ecological impact: this is our way of responding to the challenge and satisfying each of our customers, this is our contribution to the future of the industry.