My name is Peter Ehren, and I have been serving the Lithium Industry for over 26 years. My interest in lithium started during my Master’s program at the Technical University of Delft. For my thesis, I investigated lithium recovery using Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) from geothermal brines at BHP Minerals’ Salton Sea site in California. After finishing my Master’s program, I started my career as a Process Engineer at SQM in Chile, then later served as R&D Manger until 2007.

Following my tenure at SQM, I founded a new company in 2007 with an ESG Engineer named Macarena González Prieto. The consulting firm is named Process & Environmental Consultancy, and is focused on solving a wide range of challenges in the Lithium-, Boron- and Potassium industries.

My career provided me a unique opportunity to visit a majority of the lithium basins and production facilities throughout the world. Over the decades, I developed and implemented successful projects ranging from lab-scale production to industrial-scale. I completed four projects to the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) stage, and another project to full-scale production stage. These projects included work for Orocobre/Allkem, Ioneer, Millennium Lithium, and Lithium Power International. Additionally, I visited and professionally evaluated many lithium brine and mineral operations throughout the world, including Salar de Atacama (Chile), Salar Olaroz (Argentina), Cauchari (Argentina), Silver Peak (Nevada), Greenbushes (Australia), and Qinghai Basis (China), to name a few.

I have worked for a wide range of companies, across many regions, who employed countless refining methods to extract lithium from hard-rock, brine and clay. And, yet, the refining industry suffers from one common challenge in its effort to produce battery-grade lithium chemicals: it consumes vast quantities of energy and reagent and generates mountains of waste. This results in significantly higher costs with harmful emissions, and waste streams that are difficult to dispose. Some refiners consumed 5 tons of reagent, generated 4 tons of solid waste, and emitted tons of carbon dioxide for each ton of Lithium Hydroxide. The process is not sustainable today, and much less sustainable if demand increases 50x over the coming several decades.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

We founded Lithium Ark in 2021 to address the environmental pain and costly refining methods of battery-grade Lithium chemicals. It is for these reasons that our company created, developed and patented its GreenifyTM Lithium process to address the most urgent needs. Our process exploits the dependability of a reciprocal salt system that is both energy-efficient and closed-loop. The circular process requires virtually no reagents; generates virtually no waste; recovers a higher percentage of lithium; lowers both CAPEX and OPEX; and is unquestionably the most environmentally-sustainable pathway to lithium refining for the 21st century.  

Today, I serve as Lithium Ark’s Chief Technology Officer, and Macarena G. Prieto serves as Head of ESG. We operate with  a strong sense of responsibility to act as good stewards of our environment and its natural resources. We are partnering with other industry leaders to transition the industry towards better solutions. And while we are thankful that conventional refining methods have brought the industry to this point, we recognize that legacy refining methods are wholly unfit for meeting the world’s needs in the next half century.       

Using the GreenifyTM Lithium process, we have an opportunity to truly GreenifyTM the lithium supply chain. There is no value to waiting.

 

Peter Ehren

Co-founder & Director

Lithium Ark Holding BV