Lithium Extraction Technology Built for Real Brines
We don’t just extract lithium. We engineer the full process from complex brine to battery-grade lithium - combining water treatment, Direct Lithium Extraction, refining, validation, and commercial operations.
See how our technology works
Rethinking Critical Mineral Supply
The status quo can’t keep up. Real brines can - if the full system works.
The lithium market doesn’t need more extraction claims. It needs faster, lower-impact, commercially scalable supply from resources that can be developed now.
For decades, lithium supply has relied on remote megaprojects, long lead times, complex permitting, heavy infrastructure, and global refining chains. That model is too slow, too fragile, and too exposed for the scale of demand ahead.
At the same time, lithium-bearing brines are already moving through produced water systems, geothermal operations, and other industrial infrastructure.
That creates a different opportunity: lithium production built from resources already in motion, closer to existing infrastructure, and closer to future demand.
But available brine is not the same as commercial lithium supply.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Direct Lithium Extraction alone is not enough.
Real brines are complex. They can contain solids, hydrocarbons, organics, scaling risks, competing ions, changing chemistry, and site-specific operating constraints. That’s where many projects break down - not in the headline technology, but in the full system around it.
Lithium Harvest is built for that reality.
We combine water treatment, selective lithium extraction, refining, validation, and operations into one integrated brine-to-lithium process designed for real operating conditions.
Why rely on distant, high-cost sources when your infrastructure could help build the next generation of local lithium supply?
From Complex Brine to Battery-Grade Lithium
Integration is the advantage - because real brines are never “lab clean”.
Most DLE companies optimize the box. We engineer the system.
Real brines are complex. Lithium concentration, impurities, scaling risks, competing ions, and flow variations can quickly turn a promising extraction concept into lower recovery, reduced uptime, inconsistent output, and weaker economics.
That’s why Lithium Harvest engineers the full process - not just the extraction step.
Our process is built around the brine you actually have: variable, complex, and site-specific. It’s designed to handle a broad range of lithium concentrations, including lower-concentration brines and continuous-flow variations, while managing the impurities that come with real industrial water.
Commercial lithium production depends on how the full system performs: pretreatment, selective lithium extraction, refining, automation, and brine management. If those steps aren’t engineered together, output suffers, and the business case weakens.
That’s what makes Lithium Harvest different.
We’re not selling a DLE component. We’re building an integrated brine-to-lithium process designed to turn complex water into battery-grade lithium at commercial scale.
Process steps
- Brine intake: Produced water, geothermal brine, or another lithium-bearing brine is directed to a co-located treatment facility.
- Advanced water treatment: Solids, hydrocarbons, organics, and other contaminants are removed to create the right conditions for efficient lithium extraction.
- Selective lithium extraction: Our adsorption-based DLE process selectively captures lithium from the treated brine without using chemicals.
- Refining to battery-grade lithium: The lithium stream is concentrated, purified, and refined into battery-grade lithium compounds for the battery supply chain.
- Brine management: Treated brine and process water are managed through reinjection, reuse, or compliant disposal, integrated with existing water systems.
The value isn’t just in recovering lithium. It’s in delivering qualified tonnes reliably, efficiently, and with minimal losses. That’s how we help turn complex brines into higher-value lithium assets.
Go Deeper Into the System
Want to understand the technology choices behind the process? Explore the principles, validation methods, and design logic behind Lithium Harvest’s integrated brine-to-lithium platform.
From Technology to Lithium Revenue
We don’t hand over a technology package. We operate the asset.
Lithium Harvest produces battery-grade lithium compounds from secondary brines such as oilfield-produced water and geothermal brines - right where those streams already flow, and existing infrastructure already stands.
Our platform is built for modular, surface-based lithium extraction at the source. But we don’t stop at the technology package.
We work as your DBOO lithium partner.
You provide the brine opportunity and site access. We design, build, own, and operate the lithium extraction asset - including water treatment, selective lithium extraction, refining, operations, and commercial output.
That means you can participate in lithium revenue without becoming a lithium operator, building a new internal team, or carrying the full operational burden yourself.
We handle the heavy lifting. You keep running your core assets.
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Monetize a liability
Turn complex brines into a potential lithium revenue stream -
No need to become a lithium operator
We handle extraction, refining, offtake, and operations under a DBOO model -
Built on an integrated platform
Advanced water treatment and adsorption-based DLE are engineered into one practical brine-to-lithium system -
Built for real-world brines
Designed for low-grade, complex, variable brines - not clean lab samples -
Execution grounded in experience
20+ years of industrial water and separation expertise applied to real-world lithium extraction systems
Direct Lithium Extraction - Done Differently
Not just DLE. A full brine-to-lithium platform built around existing infrastructure.
At Lithium Harvest, Direct Lithium Extraction is not treated as a standalone extraction step. It’s part of a full brine-to-lithium system.
Our proprietary platform combines adsorption-based DLE, advanced water treatment, refining, modular deployment, and DBOO operations to turn produced water, geothermal brine, and other complex brines into battery-grade lithium compounds.
That matters because commercial success is not determined by lithium capture alone. It depends on the feedstock, pretreatment, refining pathway, infrastructure, operating model, and cost profile.
We don’t just extract lithium. We rethink how it’s produced.
Traditional DLE |
Lithium Harvest Solution |
Lithium Harvest Advantage |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium feedstock | Continental brine | Produced water/geothermal brine | Uses brines already moving through existing industrial infrastructure |
| Project implementation time | 5-7 years | 12-18 months | Faster deployment by leveraging existing sites and brine handling systems where available |
| Resource development | Often requires resource acquisition, drilling, and field development | Existing brine streams | Lower early-stage development burden and reduced exposure to greenfield resource risk |
| System design | Mobile or stationary DLE system | Modular, co-located, surface-based platform | Designed around full-site integration, not only lithium capture |
| Water treatment integration | Often handled separately or project-specific | Core part of the process | Better prepared for impurities, scaling risks, and changing chemistry |
| Product pathway | Often focused on lithium extraction or intermediate concentration | Integrated route to battery-grade lithium compounds | Built around qualified tonnes, not only lithium recovery |
| Average invested capital per mt of LCE | $62,500 | $17,100 | Lower capital intensity through co-location, modular design, and existing infrastructure |
| Average cost per mt of LCE | $6,000 | $3,647 | Lower cost through automation, high recovery, short logistics, and efficient process integration |
| Commercial model | Project owner/operator or technology-led model | DBOO partner model | Partners can participate without becoming lithium operators |
Traditional DLE
Lithium Harvest Solution
Lithium Harvest Advantage
Designed to Outperform Traditional Lithium Supply
Faster deployment, smaller footprint, lower carbon intensity, and battery-grade output - from brines already in motion.
The difference doesn’t stop at DLE.
Compared with conventional lithium supply routes, the full Lithium Harvest platform is designed to deliver a faster, smaller, lower-cost, and lower-impact pathway from brine to battery-grade lithium.
Traditional lithium supply often depends on remote mines, evaporation ponds, long development timelines, heavy infrastructure, and global refining chains.
Our approach starts differently.
We use lithium-bearing brines already flowing through existing industrial systems, then combine advanced water treatment, adsorption-based Direct Lithium Extraction, refining, automation, and operations into a modular, surface-based platform.
That gives Lithium Harvest a different performance profile - not just as a DLE technology, but as a practical pathway for scalable lithium supply from real brines.
The advantage isn’t one metric. It’s the combination: faster deployment, compact facilities, high recovery, lower capital intensity, lower operating cost, reduced environmental footprint, and a full system built around brines already in motion.
Lithium Harvest Solution |
Traditional DLE |
Solar Evaporation Brine Extraction |
Hard Rock Mining |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium feedstock | Produced water/geothermal brine | Continental brine | Continental brine | Rock / spodumene |
| Project implementation time | 12-18 months | 5-7 years | 13-15 years | 10-17 years |
| Lithium carbonate production time | 2 hours | 2 hours | 13-24 months | 3-6 months |
| Lithium yield | >95% | 80-95% | 20-50% | 40-70% |
| Average footprint per mt of LCE | 61 ft² | 172 ft² | 39,352 ft² | 3,605 ft² |
| Environmental impact | Minimal | Minimal | Soil and water contamination | Soil and water contamination |
| Freshwater consumption per mt of LCE | 22,729 gallons | 26,417 gallons | 118,877 gallons | 20,341 gallons |
| CO₂ footprint per mt of LCE | Designed for carbon-neutral operations | 2.5 tonne | 3.1 tonne | 20.4 tonne |
| Average invested capital per mt of LCE | $17,100 | $62,500 | $34,000 | $60,000 |
| Average operating cost per mt of LCE | $3,647 | $6,000 | $6,400 | $7,000 |
Lithium Harvest Solution
Traditional DLE
Solar Evaporation Brine Extraction
Hard Rock Mining
How Our Technology Wins in the Lithium Market
The benchmark advantage comes from system design - not one process step.
Lithium Harvest’s performance profile is driven by how the full platform is engineered: co-located brine access, advanced water treatment, adsorption-based DLE, integrated refining, modular deployment, automation, and DBOO operations.
That combination is designed to improve the metrics that matter most in the lithium market: time to production, capital efficiency, operating cost, recovery, footprint, freshwater intensity, emissions, and product quality.
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Faster path to production
Lithium Harvest is designed to move from project decision to first commercial tonnes in approximately 12-18 months by using brines already in motion, existing industrial infrastructure, and modular surface-based plants.
That means we can avoid many of the long development cycles often associated with conventional lithium projects, including new resource development, major earthworks, and large greenfield infrastructure build-out.
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Lower capital intensity
Our platform is designed to reduce upfront capital by co-locating on existing sites and using available infrastructure such as roads, power, pads, and brine handling systems where available.
That means more capital goes toward productive lithium capacity - not land acquisition, drilling, major earthworks, or long infrastructure build-out.
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Lower operating cost
Automated operations, short logistics, high lithium recovery, efficient process integration, and existing brine access are designed to support lower steady-state production costs.
In our benchmarking, Lithium Harvest targets operating costs of approximately $3,647 per metric ton of LCE.
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Higher recovery from real brines
Our integrated process is designed to achieve >95% lithium recovery by managing the full process - from brine conditioning and impurity control to selective extraction, refining, automation, and brine management.
The goal isn’t just recovery in ideal lab conditions. It’s qualified tonnes from real operating streams.
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Smaller physical footprint
Compact, surface-based plants can be co-located with produced water centers and geothermal operations, reducing the need for large new land disturbance.
Our modeled footprint is approximately 61 ft² per metric ton of LCE - significantly smaller than evaporation ponds and hard-rock mining routes.
No pits. No ponds. Reduced need for long new roads, pipelines, and large mine infrastructure. Smaller pads can support easier siting, lower civil costs, and reduced ecological and community disturbance.
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Reduced freshwater intensity through recycling
Lithium Harvest takes a different route from evaporation-based brine production.
Our adsorption-based DLE uses water as the working fluid for desorption, and the process is designed to keep most water circulating within the system. Around 96% of the water remains within the DLE circuit, and approximately 90% is recycled plant-wide.
That supports lower freshwater intensity compared with evaporation routes, keeps process chemistry simpler, and helps reduce the environmental burden of lithium production from complex brines.
While our process may use slightly more water than some hard-rock routes, the tradeoff is intentional: using water instead of complex chemistry helps reduce costs, lowers freshwater intensity compared with evaporation, and keeps the process competitive with other DLE technologies - without the chemical burden often associated with hard-rock processing.
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Lower-impact lithium supply
By combining co-location, advanced water treatment, clean power where available, shorter supply chains, and integrated operations, Lithium Harvest is designed to produce lithium with a lower environmental footprint.
Our platform is built for carbon-neutral operations, reduced land disturbance, lower freshwater intensity than evaporation routes, and closer alignment with the sustainability expectations of battery manufacturers, investors, regulators, and local communities.
Not Another DLE Player
The advantage is not one feature. It’s the combination of protected process IP, water expertise, integration, and operating responsibility.
Not all DLE is created equal.
Many companies focus on media, skids, or pilot results. Lithium Harvest is built to develop and operate full brine-to-lithium assets that run on real brines, real sites, and real economics.
Lithium extraction from complex brines is not just a technology decision. It’s a partner decision.
You’re not only choosing a DLE method. You’re choosing a team, a process, a commercial model, and an operating platform that must perform under real site conditions.
That’s where Lithium Harvest is different.
Our edge is the combination of IP-protected process design, industrial water expertise, full-system integration, and an on-site DBOO model that keeps design, build, and operations in one hand.
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A patented process, not a DLE box
Our IP-protected approach is designed around the full process from complex brine to battery-grade lithium - combining pretreatment, adsorption-based DLE, refining, and process integration into one defensible platform.
This is not generic DLE. It’s a highly engineered process platform shaped by real-world industrial water experience.
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Industrial water DNA - we’re water engineers, not mining theorists
Brine-based lithium extraction is a water problem before it becomes a lithium business.
Lithium Harvest brings 20+ years of industrial water, separation, and process-control experience to systems designed around real operating conditions - including impurities, scaling risk, chemistry variation, uptime, reliability, and site integration.
Our team has been involved in more than 400 full-scale industrial water treatment systems across oil and gas and industrial sectors. We’re already working with industry leaders, including partners with large-scale lithium carbonate production experience.
We’ve worked with the technologies in our flow sheet in full-scale, high-uptime environments - not only in lab pilots. That experience helps us:
- Condition complex brines to support lithium recovery
- Control fouling, scaling, and other performance risks
- Manage media performance and system balance
- Integrate unit operations into a practical, low-cost lithium extraction system
That operational knowledge helps us design for battery-grade consistency and project-level value where others often struggle.
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Built for real-world brines
Produced water and geothermal brines are variable, complex, and site-specific.
Our platform is designed to handle broad lithium concentration ranges, lower-concentration brines, impurities, and continuous-flow variations.
That matters because real brines don’t behave like clean lab samples. Unstable chemistry can affect recovery, uptime, output, and economics.
Lithium Harvest is built for the water you actually have - not the idealized version.
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Integrated by design
In DLE, success is not just about the extraction technology. It’s about how every upstream and downstream step works together.
Poor pretreatment can reduce recovery. Poor integration can increase losses. Poor refining design can prevent lithium from becoming a qualified battery-grade product.
That’s why we connect water treatment, DLE, refining, automation, brine management, and operations into one full brine-to-lithium process.
The value is not just in recovering lithium. It’s in qualifying product, minimizing losses, protecting uptime, and producing commercially valuable tonnes.
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DBOO model with aligned incentives
We design, build, own, and operate lithium extraction assets.
Partners provide the brine opportunity and site access. Lithium Harvest brings the technology, process expertise, project development, operations, and commercial execution.
Most lithium projects require coordination between technology vendors, EPCs, operators, and project owners - each with different incentives, handovers, and learning curves. That’s where projects often lose time, discipline, and accountability.
Our DBOO model keeps cost discipline, operational control, and long-term performance in one place - so partners can participate in lithium revenue without becoming lithium operators.
We win when the plant performs.
Lower-Impact Lithium by Design
The world needs more lithium. It also needs a better way to produce it.
Traditional mining and evaporation still supply around 89% of today’s lithium.
That model is too slow, too land-intensive, too water-intensive, and too exposed for the scale of demand ahead.
Lithium Harvest offers a different path: compact, co-located lithium production from brines already in motion - designed for a smaller physical footprint, lower freshwater intensity than evaporation routes, carbon-neutral operations, and cleaner battery supply chains.
This is not sustainability added after the fact.
It’s built into the process.
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Up to 99% smaller land footprint
Compact, co-located facilities reduce the need for large new land disturbance -
Up to 81% lower freshwater use
Designed to reduce freshwater intensity compared with traditional evaporation -
Designed for carbon-neutral operations
Co-location, low-pressure operations, clean power, and avoided disposal emissions support lower-impact production -
Up to 57% lower battery lifecycle emissions
Lithium Harvest lithium can help reduce battery lifecycle emissions compared with conventionally mined lithium
Explore Related Solutions and Resources
Go deeper into the solutions, partnership model, and resources behind Lithium Harvest’s integrated brine-to-lithium platform.
Bring Us the Brine. We’ll Bring the System.
Share a few details about your produced water, geothermal brine, or lithium-bearing industrial brine. We’ll help evaluate whether it has the potential to become a commercial lithium opportunity.
