Schlumberger New Energy & Panasonic Energy Partner To Make New Battery Grade Lithium 

Schlumberger New Energy and the North American arm of Panasonic Energy which has been helping Tesla for a while have partnered to develop a new battery-grade Lithium that is sustainably extracted. The first pilot project is happening in the Schlumberger New Energy Neolithic Energy Pilot plant in Nevada. This partnership has been tuned to meet the needs of the extreme surge in demand for EVs.

"Panasonic is a pioneer in electric vehicle battery technology, and we are excited to collaborate with them in developing our differentiated direct lithium extraction and production process," said the Schlumberger New Energy EVP, Ashok Belani.

At the Neolithic Energy project, the approach is different from direct lithium extraction to enable the production of high purity, while also reducing the production time from years to weeks. The new process also reduces the use of groundwater and reduced the physical footprint. Panasonic on the other side will provide technical expertise to validate and optimise the lithium for battery-grade consumption.

Panasonic runs Tesla's battery facilities in Nevada inside the Gigafactory

"Panasonic has a longstanding commitment to contributing to society and increasing sustainability in the supply chain as we work to produce the world's safest, highest quality and most affordable batteries is a critical priority," said Allan Swan, president of Panasonic Energy of North America.

"We look forward to working with Schlumberger New Energy to help achieve our vision of advancing the lithium-ion battery space and accelerating to a clean energy society," he added.

Neolithic Energy will pump brine from the subsurface, extract great than 90 per cent of the dissolved lithium and pump more than 85 per cent of the brine back to the subsurface in an environmentally friendly way. The ultimate goal is to avoid the need of freshwater from an external source and reduce environmental impact.