A reportedly successful pilot project in Northeastern Pennsylvania could help the United States meet the ever-increasing demand for lithium — a key component in electric vehicle batteries — and be less dependent on importing the precious element.
The extraction of lithium and some other elements from fracking wastewater at a pilot plant in Susquehanna County after a month of continuous operation has been “a resounding success,” according to a news release from Avonlea Lithium, a subsidiary of Avonlea Environmental Technologies.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process used to extract oil and natural gas from deep underground rock formations. It involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into wells, creating fractures in the rock and allowing trapped gas and oil to flow more freely.
The innovative mineral extraction system, known as Advanced Chemical Cavitation Extraction of Lithium (ACCELi), has “exceeded performance expectations, marking a transformative milestone for domestic lithium and critical mineral production in the United States,” Avonlea said.
Located at Kendra II’s Springville WMG 123 Facility, the ACCELi Cavitek pilot plant processed thousands of liters of wastewater brine daily from the Marcellus Shale natural gas operations.
Using proprietary hydrodynamic cavitation technology, the system efficiently extracted lithium, strontium, magnesium, calcium and barium from fracking brine that would otherwise be discarded, according to Avonlea.
Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale field stretches from the Northern Tier counties to the southwestern counties. The underground rock formation also extends into parts of New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.
And the lithium contained in the Marcellus shale brine in Pennsylvania could meet 38–40% of country’s current lithium demand, assuming that 100% lithium recovery and extraction processes are more cost-effective than competing uses for the water, according to an analysis by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh.
Avonlea’s ACCELi technology positions Pennsylvania as a cornerstone of America’s clean energy transition, offering a scalable solution to reduce reliance on foreign mineral imports, the company said.
“This pilot demonstrates the ACCELi system’s ability to deliver commercially viable, environmentally responsible mineral extraction,” said Douglas Brett, president of Avonlea Environmental Technologies. “The results not only validate our technology but also underscore the potential for Pennsylvania to lead in critical mineral innovation.”
Lake Twp.’s Ken Scavone of Kendra II added, “This process is a cheaper and greener way to handle getting rid of produced water,” highlighting the dual environmental and economic benefits of the ACCELi approach.
Holly Frederick, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Wilkes University, called the announcement “very exciting.”
“The idea of taking that waste brine and extracting something that’s a valuable resource in a quality that’s able to be used for a second purpose (alleviates the need to do) additional mineral extraction by techniques that are more environmentally challenging,” Frederick said. “It’s a product that’s already coming from the production of energy, so, if we’re able to get something from that as a byproduct, I think that’s a great option.”
Frederick said the United States has a high level of environmental regulation compared to other areas of the world when it comes to mining and extraction of essential minerals and elements.
“So, given our movement toward the use of batteries and the need for lithium, not just in batteries, but in other higher level technical equipment, the fact that we can source that from brine wastewater is definitely an advantage for the United States, because we aren’t subject to the techniques that are used, perhaps, in another country that might not follow the protocols that we do,” Frederick said.
Avonlea and Kendra II have agreed in principle to enter into an arrangement to work together to develop this opportunity across Pennsylvania and to evaluate other opportunities in Texas. Avonlea plans to build out the ACCELi lithium modular commercial-scale processing equipment in Pennsylvania, centralizing U.S. operations there.
Currently, 95% of the wastewater is reused in ongoing hydraulic fracturing operations and any offsets from the lithium extraction process would likely be made up with freshwater sources, according to the analysis.