Mangrove Lithium, a UBC spin-off company founded by Chemical and Biological Engineering professor Dr. David Wilkinson and members of his research group has recently acquired a $10 million investment from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the investment fund founded by Bill Gates to support the growth of clean energy technologies. The firm has discovered a sustainable and cost-effective method to increase the supply of battery-grade lithium, demand for which is soaring due its predominant application in the electric vehicles industry.
“Getting battery-grade lithium today is challenging, costly and potentially harmful to the environment, with yields of only about 50 per cent,” says Dr. Wilkinson, who is also the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Clean Energy and Electrochemical Technologies. “We’re working to retrieve as much as 90 per cent of the lithium contained in raw mined material or brine, giving lithium producers and battery manufacturers access to high concentrations of high-quality lithium in a simple, cost-effective manner.”
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