The Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd (ASX: VUL) share price is on the move on Monday morning.
At the time of writing, the lithium developer's shares are up 4% to $8.10.
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Why is the Vulcan share price charging higher?
Investors have been bidding the Vulcan share price higher today after the company released a positive announcement.
According to the release, Vulcan has successfully developed, tested, and demonstrated its own in-house lithium extraction sorbent, VULSORB, for sustainable lithium extraction from the Upper Rhine Valley Brine Field and the Zero Carbon Lithium Project.
The release notes that VULSORB has demonstrated higher performance and lower water consumption for lithium extraction in Vulcan's pilot plant, compared with commercially available sorbents tested by the company.
The company also highlights that the manufacturing process for the lithium extraction sorbent has been shown to be environmentally benign and many of the reagents are recycled.
Another positive with the process is that it is much faster and more efficient, with a lower carbon footprint, than the legacy industry method of using large-scale evaporation and large quantities of chemical reagents to extract the lithium and process into lithium hydroxide.
In fact, the sorbent extraction happens in hours, rather than up to 18 months as is the case with legacy extraction routes. This will allow Vulcan to quickly respond to the needs of its customers.
In light of the above, Vulcan has selected VULSORB as its first choice of sorbent for lithium extraction in its planned Phase 1 commercial development, with first commercial production of lithium targeted for the fourth quarter of 2025. Though, it intends to continue testing other sorbents from commercial suppliers to provide further optionality.
'Uniquely positioned'
Vulcan's CEO, Dr. Francis Wedin, commented:
In contrast to other developers who are increasingly using sorption in their developments but often outsourcing to external technology providers, Vulcan is uniquely positioned as both a lithium extraction technology provider, as well as a lithium chemicals and renewable energy developer.
Until now, there have been no commercially available sorbents for lithium extraction manufactured in Europe, thus making the region dependent on foreign supply chains. VULSORB will enable Europe to extract lithium from its own brine fields, without being exposed to geopolitical risk.
Vulcan will assess the potential of VULSORB to be used in other lithium brines in Europe and globally, particularly renewably-heated brines that can be used to extract lithium with net zero carbon footprint and zero fossil fuels, in line with Vulcan's strict mandate to be carbon neutral.
