Vancouver-based electrochemical lithium refining company NORAM Electrolysis Systems Inc. (NESI) has secured $5.6 million in federal and provincial funding to scale up its operations.
The news: NESI announced on Tuesday that it received $3 million in funding from the Government of Canada through the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), as well as $2.6 million from British Columbia’s Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) Fund.
The funding will support the development of its next-generation electrochemical lithium refining platform, which NESI claims will double its capacity with improved performance, reduced power consumption, and lower plant costs.
From the source: “This funding helps accelerate a technology platform we believe is essential to the future of cleaner industrial processing [and] allows us to advance our platform here in British Columbia while strengthening Canada’s role in the global battery materials economy,” NESI president and CEO Jeremy Moulson said in a statement.
Following the thread: Refining is one of the biggest constraints in the battery supply chain, and NESI says its electrified process helps lower emissions and recover value from waste streams compared to traditional chemical refinement processes. NESI was established as a standalone company out of NORAM’s electrochemical division in 2022. It has commissioned commercial scale lithium refinement infrastructure in Canada and Europe, and is working on projects in South America and Asia as well, a spokesperson told BetaKit.
Final thought: Lithium is a critical chemical element used to manufacture batteries, including for electric vehicles. As electrification continues, demand for lithium is expected to drastically outweigh supply by 2035, according to the 2025 Global Critical Minerals Outlook. NESI is just one Canadian company looking to cash in with their own extraction technologies; others include Mangrove Lithium and Summit Lithium Technologies.
Feature image courtesy NORAM Electrolysis Systems.