Standard Lithium said the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued Notices of Allowance for two of three pending U.S. patent applications for elements of its innovative Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) processes.
The Canadian-based technology and lithium development company anticipates the issue of the formal registration of the “Process for Recovering Lithium from Brines” patents (serial no.16/410,523 and serial no. 16/224/463) in the coming months.
“The successful Notice of Allowance from the USPTO provides continued affirmation of the company’s lithium extraction technology and allows Standard Lithium to continue advancing its first commercial lithium extraction project with even greater certainty of intellectual property rights,” said Dr. Andy Robinson, president of Standard Lithium.
Standard Lithium recently commissioned a direct chloride-to-hydroxide pilot plant that will be used to assess different technology options for lithium hydroxide production at the company’s South West Arkansas project.
To the company’s knowledge, the project location at Lanxess’ South Plant in El Dorado is the only location in North America where lithium is continuously being extracted from brine using a modern DLE process and being converted into both lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide.
Source: Standard Lithium