Standard Lithium’s large scale Demonstration Plant, located at the LANXESS South Plant near El Dorado, Arkansas, processes Smackover brine through the first commercial scale DLE column installed anywhere in North America. The Demonstration Plant is highly automated and is operated by a dedicated and knowledgeable team of Engineers, Chemists, and Operations staff.

In collaboration with joint development partner Aquatech (successor to  Koch Technology Solutions or KTS), the Demonstration Plant has been invaluable in successfully proving the DLE technology at scale. Roughly 40 million gallons of brine have been processed through the facility since 2020, with over 12,000 DLE cycles executed using the Li-Pro^TM Lithium Selective Sorption (LSS) commercial scale unit supplied by KTS (now Aquatech).

In addition to our Demonstration Plant, Smackover Lithium successfully completed the de-risking of its DLE technology with a field-test at its South West Arkansas Project. A field-pilot DLE facility was built and ran nearly 500 DLE cycles, processing 2,385 barrels of brine sourced from SWA Project well. The field-pilot facility exceeded key performance criteria. It recovered over 99% of lithium from brine and rejection of key contaminants were all within acceptable tolerance of design criteria. Approximately 970 gallons of concentrated and purified lithium chloride solution (6% LiCl solution) was produced. This field test is viewed as final testing of the flowsheet and the results underpin the SWA Project’s FEED and DFS.

Standard Lithium’s Demonstration Plant

Field-pilot DLE facility at South West Arkansas Project