Hyperdrive
World’s Largest Oilfield Contractor Tackles Lithium’s Water Woes
- Schlumberger teams up with MIT spinoff for greener processing
- Key material’s supply chain has faced environmental queries
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Schlumberger NV, the world’s largest oilfield contractor, is teaming up with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff on efforts to limit the amount of water needed to produce lithium, a key environmental hurdle for the clean energy raw material.
Boston-based Gradiant, a developer of water treatment facilities, is aiming to deploy technology already in use in copper to nickel mines in Chile and Australia to help reduce the environmental footprint of producing lithium from salt lakes, a process that accounts for 43% of global supply.