Using proprietary applied sciences, Gradiant’s objective is to scale back water use, decrease wastewater discharge, reclaim assets and convert wastewater into freshwater. To higher serve the lithium sector, the corporate not too long ago spun out alkaLi, a brand new firm targeted on scaling battery-grade lithium manufacturing utilizing its proprietary EC2 know-how.
As famous on the corporate’s web site, EC2 is designed to extract, focus and convert lithium rapidly and effectively, decreasing operational prices and environmental impression. The know-how, which adapts to numerous lithium sources and integrates with present infrastructure, has been efficiently examined and confirmed commercially.
“It is a startup that advantages from over a decade of expertise, and from all of the funding we now have raised,” mentioned Bajpayee.
For Govindan, Gradiant’s success within the water therapy house is a pure match for the lithium extraction sector.
“The DLE house is glorified water therapy,” he defined whereas talking with INN. “Adsorption, resins, ion change and membranes are our bread-and-butter water therapy processes. “
Gradiant’s main water focus and proprietary applied sciences give alkaLi an edge, famous Bajpayee.
“I feel one distinction is we’re a water firm making an attempt to do DLE, not a DLE firm making an attempt to do water. As a result of you’ll be able to’t simply do DLE — you both need to do water, or it’s a must to companion with water firms,” the CEO defined.
alkaLi’s EC2 is a versatile, three stage system designed to course of lithium from varied sources, together with brine, evaporation and recycling. It may be utilized in full or in standalone phases, integrates with present infrastructure and gives an possibility to spice up manufacturing with Gradiant’s SmartOps AI platform.
Extracting worth from wastewater
Whereas alkaLi is lithium centric, Gradiant has an extended historical past of aiding the mining sector within the extraction of commodities from water. “We’ve labored throughout mining purposes, not simply important minerals like nickel, cobalt and lithium, but in addition iron ore mines, uranium mines and different sectors,” mentioned Govindan.
In his view, the mining sector has two very particular points. First, in lithium processing, the mineral is present in water, requiring experience in focus, decontamination and conversion to provide battery-grade supplies. This course of can be relevant to nickel, cobalt and different important minerals.
The second difficulty is wastewater therapy or tailings reprocessing, corresponding to in Chile’s copper mines, the place tailing ponds include important minerals and extremely polluting wastewater. The know-how Gradiant has developed can reclaim invaluable minerals whereas recycling wastewater into recent water for industrial use.
Pointing to Chile’s Atacama province, the place water shortage is a distinguished difficulty, Govindan famous that as a lot as 60 p.c of the potable water within the area is used for mining purposes.
“Once we get better and reuse that wastewater to the extent of 90 p.c, we will scale back that 60 p.c all the way in which down to six p.c,” he mentioned. “So it is an enormous environmental impression, water sustainability impression.”
Based on a 2023 article printed within the journal “Science of the Whole Setting,” tailings reprocessing can scale back the quantity of tailings that have to be saved, decrease the greenhouse gasoline emissions related to new mining and provide roughly 2 p.c of the EU’s future copper demand.
Govindan highlighted a nickel undertaking in Australia, the place the corporate was introduced in to get better 20 p.c of the nickel that wasn’t recovered throughout processing, resulting in losses in wastewater.
Gradiant proposed an answer to get better a lot of the misplaced nickel, considerably boosting the undertaking’s profitability.
Focusing on tailings may produce industrial water for reuse, because the Gradiant executives identified. Moreover, as Bajpayee famous, the processes utilized by Gradiant and alkaLi not solely produce reusable water, however may get better salt and different minerals, leading to “true zero-discharge initiatives.”
Junior-focused enterprise mannequin
Having the ability to get better misplaced minerals whereas reusing water can result in important price financial savings.
“As a substitute of promoting the tools and strolling away, we’ll put it on the web site and function the tools. The proprietor pays us per liter of water we produce, per tonne of lithium we produce, which actually helps the juniors,” mentioned Govindan.
“(Juniors) are in a capital-intensive trade, and when costs are US$12,000 per tonne for lithium, they are not capable of increase capital. Then there may be Gradiant, the one unicorn within the water tech house. We’ve a wonderful steadiness sheet; additionally we’re capable of increase debt and fairness capital, which we will use to assist them by placing the tools ourselves.”
EC2’s modular design makes it straightforward and quick to arrange, which is one other plus for junior miners trying to reap the benefits of future market developments rapidly. “Two issues are crucial when it comes to product philosophy for us (and) for lithium particularly: productization and digitalization. The EC2 know-how could be very modular and it is very digital,” mentioned Govindan.
“We’ve synthetic intelligence; we now have a SmartOps platform we developed for water therapy, however is lithium relevant. So we’re capable of present extremely modular, extremely digitalized options.”
For firms trying to produce lithium hydroxide as a substitute of carbonate, a easy converter could be carried out that converts carbonate to hydroxide, the executives defined.
Being a bespoke water-first firm additionally makes the applied sciences developed by Gradiant versatile.
“Utilizing variable brines is one thing that truly comes fairly naturally to us,” mentioned Bajpayee. “And the power to customise options makes it additionally extensively relevant, whether or not it is South America, the US or Australia.”
Except for designing water options for industries like mining, Gradiant has developed applied sciences to focus on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also called perpetually chemical compounds.
Gradiant’s ForeverGone is a complete resolution for completely eliminating PFAS. Not like present applied sciences that solely switch PFAS waste, ForeverGone makes use of micro-foam fractionation to pay attention PFAS, in addition to a destruction engine for electro-oxidation to utterly destroy the chemical compounds.
This course of ensures water meets or exceeds US Environmental Safety Company requirements, providing an environment friendly, cost-effective and sustainable methodology for PFAS removing.
“(The objective is) to construct an impression that can outlast you. That is the last word measure of success,” mentioned Bajpayee.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, maintain no direct funding curiosity in any firm talked about on this article.
Editorial Disclosure: The Investing Information Community doesn’t assure the accuracy or thoroughness of the knowledge reported within the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews don’t replicate the opinions of the Investing Information Community and don’t represent funding recommendation. All readers are inspired to carry out their very own due diligence.