NESI Technology to Support Commercial-Scale Lithium Refining at Vulcan Energy's Frankfurt Facility
The Lionheart Project targets annual production of 24,000 tons of battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate — enough to supply approximately 500,000 electric vehicle batteries per year.
NORAM Electrolysis Systems Inc. (NESI), a Vancouver, British Columbia-based clean technology company, announced May 5 that construction has begun on Vulcan Energy Resources' Central Lithium Plant at Infraserv Industrial Park Höchst in Frankfurt, Germany, where NESI's proprietary electrochemical technology will be used to produce battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate.
The facility is part of Vulcan Energy's Lionheart Project, which will use NESI's NORSCAND electrolysis technology to convert lithium chloride derived from geothermal brines into lithium hydroxide monohydrate. According to the companies, the project targets annual production capacity of 24,000 tons, sufficient for approximately 500,000 electric vehicle batteries per year. Commercial production is targeted for the latter half of 2028.
The project follows Vulcan Energy's final investment decision and a €2.2 billion (approximately $2.5 billion USD) funding package secured in December 2025.
The Lionheart groundbreaking comes amid broader industry activity around lithium supply chain development. Earlier this month, Syensqo was recognized at the American Chemistry Council's 2026 Responsible Care and Sustainability Conference for a solvent extraction technology used to recover lithium from end-of-life batteries, with the company reporting recovery rates above 90% at pilot scale.
Separately, BioMADE announced $21.4 million in biomanufacturing funding that included a project led by AlkaLi Labs to develop a microbial process for extracting lithium from produced water, targeting a scalable biomining approach for the battery material.
This piece was created with the help of generative AI tools and edited by our content team for clarity and accuracy.
