Jim RIeke is Vice President of Process Engineering at Veolia Water Technologies. Within the Veolia Galaxy, we focus today on HPD: Large-scale, highly-integrated process solutions utilizing evaporation, crystallization, and more.

If you recall what Tony Strobbe shared on this microphone a couple of weeks ago: "if you ship spodumene concentrate across the ocean, you ship 6% what you want, and 94% what you don't want."

6% is the highest you will get in lithium from hard rock, after onsite concentration from the natural 1.5% lithium content in the best spodumenes. 

To get to the battery grade 99.95%, you hence need to refine that lithium, a quite specific and key process along the EV material supply chain, in which HPD specializes - in a way Jim will explain in a minute.

That said specialization doesn't stop at lithium from hard rock, though, as we'll discover with use cases from clay, Direct Lithium Extraction, and maybe the most spectacular example, with Veolia's latest reference in refining lithium from evaporation ponds.

The way these projects are built is quite revealing of the pace of this sector as well, as Jim will describe how it can sometimes take up to seven years to freeze the process design. It's also a fascinating blueprint for circular economy and resource recovery, as by-products can be upcycled and sometimes even directly used again in the refining process. 

From a business perspective, it's also an interesting configuration at the edges of the traditional EPC approach, an integrator path, and sometimes a service and operation play. 

Wanna get how a 200-headcount division of a Water Giant became a leading lithium refining actor? Then you're at the right place

➡️ Check out the entire article on how 'reverse ZLD' perfectly defines the Lithium Refinery process including a teaser, a slider, and a full transcript on the (don't) Waste Water website!

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😮 Anaergia's flagship asset, the Rialto Bioenergy Facility, just filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. What happened? What are the problems? What's next? Let's review ⬇

Last year, I spoke with Andrew Benedek and Kunal Shah on this podcast, and I came out of those two episodes deeply convinced that Anaergia was changing the World for the better.

🏆 Last month, that feeling got comforted at Global Water Intelligence (GWI)'s awards ceremony, when the company won two trophies as "Net Zero Carbon Champion," but also indirectly as a contributor to the "Wastewater Project of the Year."

So I was shocked when reading GWI's last weekly briefing and discovering North America's largest organic waste-to-energy plant was in deep trouble!

But when analyzing what happened, I started noting some very familiar patterns to anyone deeply involved with the Water Industry.

To me:

3️⃣ Rialto has 3 Problems (which I detail in this episode)

🤦‍♂️ It's not the first time Regulation has come in the way of Water Companies

📜 Paul O'Callaghan's thesis on the Dynamics of Water Innovation once more helps us understand what's going on

🕯 I think Anaergia will get to the light on the other end of that tunnel

... and frankly speaking, I hope so!

▶️ Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube    

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with 🎙️ Robert Mintak - CEO of Standard Lithium

💧 Standard Lithium coins itself America's 21st century Lithium Company. They're expected to become the first lithium developer in the World to produce direct-extracted lithium at a commercial scale in El Dorado

What we covered:

5️⃣ How Standard Lithium built a plan to grow to commercial direct lithium extraction (DLE) scale in five years

🔁 How you can't take lithium extraction processes off-the-shelf and how you can't copy-paste what works on a lab scale for a commercial scale

💧 How there's an overlooked part of DLE: managing high brine volumes and flows

🎁 How Standard Lithium "surprised" Lanxess with a lithium add-on to their bromine business

🤝 How you need to know what you know but also know when to team up and get support to take your project off the ground

💰 How Standard Lithium used a simple trick most companies wouldn't dare to apply: paying their partner to kick things off

🗺️ How the Lanxess project will serve as a Blueprint for replication across Arkansas' Smackover formation

⚔️ How there's no silver-bullet universal lithium extraction process and how you need to tailor it to your regional parameters

⚡ How to be future-proof and keep all options open to the evolutions in battery technology

📍 Why El Dorado, Arkansas is the absolute best place to build a lithium chemical business in North America

👍 How having a positive impact and walking the talk is key to be serious about supporting the energy transition and the EV Revolution

🌇 Fluid handling as a boring but necessary evil, developing win-win agreements, relationships to Koch Engineering and Lanxess, California and further Arkansas projects... and much more!

🔥 ... and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥

🔗 Come say hi to Robert on Linkedin 

🔗 Check Standard Lithium's website 

➡️ Check out the entire article on Standard Lithium's 10 Simple Secrets to DLE Success  

➡️ Reach out to me: [email protected] 

More episodes in this Series:

1 - Why Water Technologies Matter in Lithium Mining">Why Water Technologies Matter in Lithium Mining (And Why You Should Buy Now!)

2 - The Shocking Requirements of Spodumene Processing">The Shocking Requirements of Spodumene Processing (and other Lithium 101 stories)

3 - Standard Lithium's 10 Simple Secrets to DLE Success">Standard Lithium's 10 Simple Secrets to DLE Success (and how that rolls out in El Dorado)

4 - How 'Reverse ZLD' made the World's Largest Water Company a Lithium Refinery Expert">How 'Reverse ZLD' made the World's Largest Water Company a Lithium Refinery Expert 

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Robert Mintak is the CEO of Standard Lithium. Standard Lithium coins itself America's 21st century Lithium Company, and indeed, they shall become the first lithium developer in the World to produce direct-extracted lithium at a commercial scale in El Dorado.

What's not to love about Direct Lithium Extraction or DLE? We've seen in the first two episodes of this series how the World needs to scale from about half a million of yearly Lithium Carbonate Equivalent to 2, 3, or maybe even 5 million by 2030. And sure, you can probably extract more spodumene in hard rock mines. You can probably also evaporate more lithium-rich brines in the south american lithium triangle. But will that be enough? For many, that's still an open question, and not the only one.

How and where do you refine that lithium? Who does it? Where and how do you ship it around? And what if the ones with lithium don't want to sell to the ones with battery gigafactories. 

To answer many of these questions and more, Direct Lithium Extraction comes in pretty handy. Indeed, with DLE and the extended CRC (if you don't know that acronym, you probably shall dive into the first episode of this series with Ben Sparrow), you have an all-in-one approach that turns low-concentration brines into battery-grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide. 

Black oil fields can get a second life as a source of white oil. Geothermal projects can now kill two birds with one stone, leveraging the heat AND the lithium content. And existing brine operations, like the one Robert will talk about in a minute at the Lanxxess site in El Dorado, can start to multiply their value by adding an additional revenue stream. 

Hence my question: what's not to love about Direct Lithium Extraction?

Well, yes, it leverages processes we know quite well in the Water Industry, such as adsorption, ion exchange, membrane, thermal or electrochemical processes.

And yes, in a quite specific shape, it's been partially used since the 90s in Argentina and China.

But as an end-to-end process where unconventional brines flow in and battery-grade lithium gets extracted on the other end, it's never been scaled up to commercial sizes. There have been impressive lab studies and pilot plants, and even a handful of demo plants, one of them being Standard Lithium's one in El Dorado, another, Vulcan's one in Germany we'll discuss in a future episode. Yes, that's a spoiler. But never, ever, a full-scale plant. 

So the ability of pioneers such as Standard Lithium to manage the rollout of commercial scale DLE is something that's closely watched by an entire industry. 

How do you pick the right place to roll out? How do you build the right team? What are the decisive parameters to monitor? What's often overlooked? What makes a potential world's first full-scale Direct Lithium Extraction project? I'll let Robert take it from there.

➡️ Check out the entire article on the 10 Simple Secrets of Standard Lithium's probable world-first commercial DLE, including several teasers and a full transcript on the (don't) Waste Water website!

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with 🎙️ Tony Strobbe - EV supply chain Projects Director 

💧 Every Monday, Tony compiles a dedicated content piece he shares on LinkedIn that covers one aspect of that said supply chain

What we covered:

⚡ How there are no electric vehicles without batteries, no batteries without lithium, and no lithium without some kind of mining, hence you have to build a supply chain 

🤝 How the closer you are to your customer, the higher the margins for your product, and the consequences this has on the lithium mining vertical 

📉 How car manufacturers could well end up being left without lithium if they donc tackle the challenge seriously 

2️⃣ How there are two ways to approach the vertical, from the bottom and from the top and where those two paths cross and meet 

💰 How the large lithium companies currently "printing money" have two paths to continue doing so, and which one is probably the best for them 

🛠️ What are the material requirements to process one ton of spodumene and turn it into battery-grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide 

💧 How ESG considerations will impact the lithium value chain today and tomorrow 

🧮 What parameters to consider when conceiving and building a lithium refinery and where to ideally locate it 

🌍 How geopolitics and history shape the current and future lithium markets 

😈 How there may well be a Powerpoint path to lithium equilibrium, but how the devil lies in the execution 

🍲 How DLE deals with a hot soup, and how this comes with its own challenges 

🚢 Lithium offer and demand, high prices solving high prices, the shelf life of Lithium Hydroxide, shipping spodumene across the World, extracting as much value as possible locally, lithium from new sources... and much more!

🔥 ... and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥

🔗 Come say hi to Tony on Linkedin

➡️ Check out the entire article on The Shocking Requirements of Spodumene Processing 

➡️ Reach out to me: [email protected] 

More episodes in this Series:

1 - Why Water Technologies Matter in Lithium Mining">Why Water Technologies Matter in Lithium Mining (And Why You Should Buy Now!)

2 - The Shocking Requirements of Spodumene Processing">The Shocking Requirements of Spodumene Processing (and other Lithium 101 stories)

3 - Standard Lithium's 10 Simple Secrets to DLE Success">Standard Lithium's 10 Simple Secrets to DLE Success (and how that rolls out in El Dorado)

4 - How 'Reverse ZLD' made the World's Largest Water Company a Lithium Refinery Expert">How 'Reverse ZLD' made the World's Largest Water Company a Lithium Refinery Expert 

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Tony Strobbe is EV supply chain Projects Director. Every Monday, he compiles a dedicated content piece he shares on LinkedIn that covers one aspect of that said supply chain, so if you like what he shares today, make sure to follow him!

I hope you haven't missed last week's conversation with Ben Sparrow from Saltworks! If you have, shame on you, but let me bring you up to speed: we're diving into the lithium value chain to discuss, evaluate and uncover the opportunities for water technologies and professionals in this rapidly growing application that taps into several layers of the water industry.

Now when you visit a foreign country, it's often a smart move to start by getting the basics of language and culture. So that's the mission I tasked Tony with today: let us break down the fundamentals of lithium processes. Why, where, and how do we refine lithium. What do we need to know on the technical side of the equation, but also on the geopolitical aspect of things. Where does the lithium value chain sit in the greater scheme of the EV supply chain?

Those are just some of the questions we'll get to answer today. And that will give us valuable keys to leverage the next nuggets in this series, such as the company that shall build the first ever commercial scale Direct Lithium Extraction project, or the dedicated team within the World's largest water company that's conceived some of the most emblematic lithium refining projects. 

Before kicking off, let me just share with you that I'm back from the Global Water Summit in Berlin and then the BlueTech Forum in Edinburg; it was a great experience to get to meet many of you and to discuss water, wastewater, water entrepreneurship, and much more. I'm so grateful for the many heartwarming feedbacks you gave me on the podcast, it means the World to me, and beyond just an ego-boost, it's critically important for me as I strive to produce you the most useful content every week. If it's the case, I'm glad it is, and you can help me out by sharing the pod with your friends, colleagues, boss, or team. Yet if you feel there's something I shall be doing differently or better, hey, feedback doesn't have to be positive: come share me your thoughts on LinkedIn or by mail: [email protected].

I also came back from both Berlin and Edinburg with great pieces of content, I spoke with the GWI team and the BlueTech team, I also cut some quite insightful interviews with Xylem, Veolia, Aquatech, Kemira, Evoqua, Gingko Bioworks, and more, I can't wait to share you all of this, once I've digested and edited it, but enough for that sidetrack and all that teasing, I'll leave the floor to Tony, and I'll meet you on the other side. 

➡️ Check out the entire article on how to sell smaller-sized Water Companies">Water Companies, including an infographic and a full transcript on the (don't) Waste Water website!

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with 🎙️ Benjamin Sparrow - CEO and Co-Founder at Saltworks Technologies 

💧 Saltworks provides innovative products and solutions for industrial wastewater treatment and desalination.

What we covered:

🎢 The current state of Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) and its possible technological paths

🤝 How DLE gets paired with Concentrate Refine Convert (CRC) processes and how this takes lithium to battery-grade

4️⃣ The Two main sources of Lithium in the World and their Two Contenders (DLE & Battery Recycling)

📆 The timelines of a lithium mining project and how fast tracks are myths

🏃 How speed to market is going to be a key metric for a new lithium player's success and how to maximize your chances of success

🇨🇦 How regions with a rich mining history, such as Canada and Australia, will lead the charge in the lithium mining revolution

💧 How water processes being massively used in lithium extraction projects will have consequences on lead times and technology availability in the Water Sector

📈 How lithium mining is an industry where everybody is growing and how there is more money flowing into the sector than companies ready to receive it

🚀 Generation 1 vs 2, Evaluating a Surprise Lithium Project, what's important for DLE's Success, Key market players, Growing as a water technology scale-up... and much more!

🔥 ... and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥

🔗 Have a look at Saltworks' website 

🔗 Come say hi to Benjamin on Linkedin

➡️ Check out the entire article on Why Water Technologies Matter in Lithium Mining (And Why You Should Buy Now!)

➡️ Reach out to me: [email protected] 

Other Episodes in this Series:

1 - Why Water Technologies Matter in Lithium Mining">Why Water Technologies Matter in Lithium Mining (And Why You Should Buy Now!)

2 - The Shocking Requirements of Spodumene Processing">The Shocking Requirements of Spodumene Processing (and other Lithium 101 stories)

3 - Standard Lithium's 10 Simple Secrets to DLE Success">Standard Lithium's 10 Simple Secrets to DLE Success (and how that rolls out in El Dorado)

4 - How 'Reverse ZLD' made the World's Largest Water Company a Lithium Refinery Expert">How 'Reverse ZLD' made the World's Largest Water Company a Lithium Refinery Expert 

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Here's the full breakdown of the Water Action Agenda pledges (including the Excel table that you can download) ➡️ https://dww.show/the-truth-about-the-water-action-agenda-768-commitments-decrypted/

I fear that the UN Water Action Agenda suffers from what Barney Stinson (yes, the one from How I Met Your Mother) would call... the cheerleader effect.

Many "commitments", but at the end of the day, a lot of pretty vague ones.

So I looked into it and share you some emblematic examples in this video! But I did not stop there.

I also wanted to test out what it takes to be featured on the Water Action Agenda and decided to introduce a commitment myself. To do so, I got a bit of help: the almighty ChatGPT wrote it integrally for me in just two queries.

And guess what? It got adopted!

Now to be clear, it's not so much of a scam at the end of the day: I will really follow my pledge and publish a Water Podcast a week for the next year. And in all cases, I'll submit updates on my pledge, which isn't the norm when you find out that ⬇️

I made an additional short on how a $300 Bn pledge became a $101 Bn commitment ➡️ https://youtube.com/shorts/hc0jeCdaYns?feature=share

Timestamps:

00:00 Csaba Kőrösi presses a mysterious button

01:00 Why was the UN Water Conference happening at all?

01:58 Can the Water Action Agenda save the UN Water Conference's outcomes?

03:02 The problem with the Water Action Agenda: the Cheerleader Effect

04:10 2 Examples of Empty Statements (amongst 146 other ones)

06:37 "Lukewarm Water Commitments" (a problematic UN Water Action Agenda category)

08:22 3 Awesome Commitments (there are good ones too!)

10:08 What's the scam?

11:03 Using ChatGPT to trick the United Nations

12:42 Did it Work? 

14:12 Conclusion

➡️ Reach out to me: [email protected] 

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Maybe "Lying" is too strong of a word, but at least there's a serious imbalance between what's needed, what's spoken about, and what's really pledged.

Wanna dive deeper into the topic? Check out my full video: https://youtu.be/7gksQHzCYVA

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with 🎙️ Karl Michael Millauer, Founder of KMM Consulting and a former C-Level executive in some emblematic water groups like BWT, Christ Water Technology, Aquatech International, and Aquarion AG. 

💧 KMM Consulting helps clients around the globe leverage opportunities in the world of water through mergers & acquisitions, finance & funding, business development, and strategic support.

What we covered:

▫️ How unlike McKinsey, Roland Berger, or KPMG, KMM Consulting works with small Water Companies and helps them get sold, further distributed or raising money 

👴 How the most common case is to put a water company for sales to solve a succession challenge 

🔨 How some other water businesses have reached a glass ceiling for their growth and how a M&A move is the way to break it 

👐 How healthy water companies can be profitable for 45 years, active in a very good niche and scalable, and still not find any interested investor 

🤑 How founders often overestimate the value of their Water Company, why they do so, and what's a good rule of thumb to determine the right valuation 

⏰ How long a typical due diligence process lasts and what key milestones have to be crossed 

🤝 How marketing is key in selling a water company and how that often boils down to the founder's ability to convey his message and value proposition 

👔 How KMM Consulting packages its relationship to small water businesses and how that's a different approach to what most market players do 

👨‍🏫 How ESG and sustainability investors may need to get educated to the specificities of the water sector when they first step in 

📈 How some water companies are perfectly healthy and profitable and simply don't want to grow, why, and why that's absolutely fine! 

👋 How when acquiring a small water company, new owners may get nervous if the founder leaves too quickly and which kind of mechanisms, such as earn-outs, work the best to please everyone 

🍴 How the freshly created Aquarion AG acquired the established Hager und Elsässer behemoth and what you can learn from it 

💰 Drivers that amend a company's valuation, healthy growth vs. burning money, the biggest hurdles in a water company sales process, how it's a people's business, the importance of risk management, pairing technical and commercial skills, focusing on the smaller end of the water sector's pyramid... and much more!

🔥 ... and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥

🔗 Check KMM Consulting's Website 

🔗 Send your warmest regards to Karl Michael on LinkedIn

➡️ Check out the entire article on how to sell smaller-sized Water Companies, including an infographic and a full transcript on the (don't) Waste Water website!

➡️ Reach out to me: [email protected] 

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