Understanding Lithium extraction: DLE and traditional approaches

Lithium is essential for batteries powering electric vehicles, renewable energy storage, and mobile devices. Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) is a next-generation technology that efficiently recovers lithium from underground brine, using far less water, land, and time than traditional methods. For Swiss Geo Energy, DLE will play a key role in securing a sustainable lithium supply for Switzerland and Europe.

DLE extraction:
In a nutshell

Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) offers a modern approach to lithium recovery that is faster, cleaner, and more efficient than traditional mining or evaporation ponds. It selectively extracts lithium from brine while returning the rest of the water underground — preserving natural resources and minimising environmental impact.

DLE process
DLE works by taking lithium-rich underground brine, extracting only the lithium, and reinjecting the water back in. The lithium is then processed into high-quality material for batteries.
Key advantages
DLE produces higher-purity lithium while consuming significantly less water and operating on much shorter timelines than conventional methods. This results in improved battery materials and streamlined production cycles.
Environmental impact reduced
This method uses less land than mining or other brine-based methods. It consumes less water and produces fewer greenhouse gases, better preserving our environment.
Market efficiency
DLE recovers over 90% of lithium from brine in weeks instead of years compared to traditional methods. This enables faster, cheaper batteries while strengthening supply chain resilience.

DLE transforms and speeds up lithium extraction for a sustainable future

Swiss Geo Energy integrates Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) with geothermal energy production to maximise resource utilisation while reducing environmental impact. This process uses selective extraction techniques to recover lithium from geothermal brines, addressing growing demand for battery technologies and renewable energy applications.

DLE process with geothermal fluids

DLE extracts lithium from geothermal brines during energy production, recovering lithium before reinjecting fluids into the reservoir. The process yields battery-quality material.

Key advantages for geothermal operations

DLE produces higher-purity lithium while operating within existing geothermal infrastructure. This approach optimises resource recovery and creates additional revenue streams.

Environmental
impact minimised

This method uses existing geothermal infrastructure without additional land requirements while using hydrothermal systems that preserve groundwater resources.

Enhanced project viability

DLE recovers over 90% of lithium from geothermal brines within weeks, creating economic value for geothermal projects while supporting Switzerland's renewable energy transition.

Click or tap the image for more information

DLE captures lithium from brines

DLE uses different approaches to selectively remove lithium molecules from underground brine while leaving other elements behind.

Solvent extraction
This process uses solvents that don't mix with water. When these liquids are in contact with the brine, they selectively draw lithium ions away from the water phase and into the organic phase. The result is two separate layers - like oil floating on water - with the lithium now concentrated in the organic layer, ready for collection and further processing.
Membranes
This technique uses thin membranes with microscopic pores designed to let only lithium ions pass through while blocking larger elements like magnesium. These selective barriers work using driving forces such as pressure differences, electrical fields, or temperature gradients to push lithium through while filtering out unwanted compounds.
Adsorption
Specially engineered materials are designed to specifically attract and capture lithium chloride molecules from the brine solution. These materials act like selective sponges that only soak up the lithium chloride while leaving other compounds behind.
Ion-exchange
This method uses sorbent- containing ions that preferentially swap places with lithium ions in the brine. When brine flows through these materials, lithium ions are captured while the sorbent releases different ions (like sodium or hydrogen) in exchange.
Click or tap the image for more information

Hard rock mining:
High environmental cost for lithium

Hard rock mining extracts lithium from crushed rock in open-pit mines. This process requires extensive digging, shipping the material overseas for processing, and multiple refining stages before the lithium reaches battery manufacturers. This approach takes approximately 3 months from mine to market.

Environmental footprint

This method produces emissions, requires significant water and land resources, and recovers only about 70% of available lithium.

The innovation imperative

Growing battery material demand highlights the need for alternatives that reduce emissions, save water, and improve recovery rates.

Lithium extraction by evaporation:
The traditional
brine-based method

The evaporation process extracts lithium from salt brines using a time-intensive natural approach. This method pumps lithium-rich brine into large evaporation ponds, also called salars, processes it through several stages, and eventually produces lithium carbonate after approximately two years.

Resource challenges

This method uses large amounts of water, requires extensive land for evaporation ponds, and recovers only about one-third of the available lithium, despite creating less pollution than mining.

The time factor

The two-year timeline from start to finished product creates long delays in lithium supply, making it difficult to respond quickly to the growing demand for batteries.

Click or tap the image for more information

DLE in numbers

When compared to hard rock mining and evaporation ponds, DLE demonstrates superior performance across multiple key metrics, including CO2 emissions and water use.

Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE)
Hard rock
extraction
Evaporation
ponds
Direct CO2 emissions (per tonne LCE equivalent)
1.6 tCO2
 4
9.6 tCO2
1
2.8 tCO2
 1
Water use
1.34 - 94 m3
170 m3
469 m3
Lithium recovery rate
90%
 5
70%
1
30-40%
3
Land use
0.14 m2
464 m2
3124 m2
Extraction to market
Approx. 2-month
lead time
Approx. 3 months
Approx. 2-year
lead time
1 IEA (2021), GHG emissions intensity for lithium by resource type and processing route, IEA, Paris
2 MDPI (2024), Recent Advances in Lithium Extraction
3 MDPI (2024), Assessing the Viability of Integrating Evaporation and Solvent Extraction Systems for Lithium Recovery from Low-Grade Brines
4 T&E (2024), Unlocking lithium’s potential: How to do it sustainably in Europe
5 Goldman Sachs (2023), Direct Lithium Extraction: A potential game changing technology

Discover Switzerland's geothermal opportunity

Partner with Swiss Geo Energy's systematic clean energy development, where established subsurface expertise creates innovative geothermal solutions. Our comprehensive portfolio scales through three strategic phases—proof of concept, expansion, diversification—delivering consistent returns while driving Switzerland's Energy Transition forward.

See portfolio details