Li-Metal, a battery materials company based in Canada, says it has produced lithium metal from lithium carbonate, which reduces the number of steps and harmful byproducts involved in refining lithium, a key electric vehicle battery material.
The new technology generates lithium metal without the need for an intermediary step that produces lithium chloride. Refining lithium chloride produces chlorine gas, which is toxic and has corrosive properties.
"It's a route to really mobilize the lithium carbonate that's produced for lithium ion batteries and to transform that into lithium metal that will be needed by next-generation batteries," Maciej Jastrzebski, co-founder and chief technology officer of Li-Metal, told Automotive News. "It opens up basically a line of sight onto a large number of lithium units that can then be converted to metal."