LiPhera
LiPhera provides selective electrodialysis technology that purifies and concentrates lithium-bearing brines before extraction, removing up to 98% of target contaminants while consuming up to 50% less energy than standard electrodialysis. The company's patent-pending membranes deliver 10x to 100x better selectivity than commercial alternatives, supporting lithium producers, battery recyclers, and industrial water treatment operators in lowering production costs.
- Chemical Technology
- Clean Technology
- Battery Technology
- New Materials
- Manufacturing / Industry 4.0
- Hardware
Funding
Founders
Founder details are not available yet.
Product
Problem
Battery recycling is economically challenging because extracting lithium from black mass—the shredded material from spent batteries—is costly and inefficient. Existing methods consume reagents and complicate downstream processing, eroding recyclers' profit margins and limiting the scale of domestic recycling operations.
Solution
LiPhera provides a compact electrodialysis unit that integrates early in the battery black mass treatment process to selectively extract lithium. The technology leverages proprietary membrane innovations that deliver 10x to 100x better selectivity than commercial membranes, enabling over 90% lithium recovery in a single pass without reagent consumption. The company also applies its selective electrodialysis (SED) technology to purify and concentrate lithium-bearing brine prior to extraction, removing up to 98% of target contaminants including magnesium, calcium, iron, and manganese. By separating lithium from other metals and contaminants upfront, LiPhera simplifies downstream processing, reduces refining and production costs, and supports vertical integration for lithium producers. The low-energy electrodialysis architecture operates with a mild electric field and resists scaling, making it suitable for industrial deployment across diverse feedstocks.
Target Audience
Primary customers are battery recyclers seeking to improve profit margins and expand domestic recycling capacity, as well as lithium producers and industrial operators needing selective lithium separation from complex brine and industrial streams.
Features
- Selective electrodialysis membranes with 10x to 100x improved selectivity compared to commercial alternatives
- Single-pass lithium extraction efficiency exceeding 90% from black mass, eliminating reagent consumption
- Up to 98% removal of target contaminants (Mg, Ca, Fe, Mn) from lithium-bearing brines
- Up to 4x increase in membrane throughput and up to 50% less energy consumed than standard electrodialysis
- Low-energy architecture with a mild electric field designed to resist membrane scaling
- Compact unit that integrates early in the black mass treatment workflow, separating lithium from nickel, cobalt, and other metals
- Applicable to geothermal brines, salar (salt-lake) brines, industrial water treatment, and lithium-ion battery recycling