Transforming lithium extraction

Lisa Raitt: Welcome to The Sustainability Agenda, a podcast series focused on the evolving complexities of the sustainability landscape. I’m your host, Lisa Raitt. Please join me as we explore today’s most pressing issues with special guests that will give you some new perspective and help you make sense of what really matters.

Ghada Nafie: As a visible minority in the space getting into lithium and into mining, I’m talking about a very small percentage in that space. So it is not an easy path and it certainly had its challenges. And I’m hoping that I’m really supporting the next generation that comes through that door.

Lisa Raitt: Welcome to our multi-part series, profiling female entrepreneurs enabling Canada’s energy transition. Our guests in this series represent innovation led clean energy start-ups incubated through the University of Calgary’s Energy Transition Centre. CIBC fosters the energy transition ecosystem through strategic investments in academia, including the University of Calgary, to enable a more inclusive and sustainable economy. And today I have the great pleasure to introduce you to Dr. Ghada Nafie, who is the CEO and Co-Founder of Litus, a Canadian clean tech company focused on transforming lithium extraction. Dr. Nafie is an accomplished researcher and educator, PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Calgary. And on today’s episode we’re going to discuss breakthrough solutions for selectively harvesting lithium from aqueous sources. And what does this mean for lithium producers and the future of the industry? So good afternoon, Ghada. Thank you so very much for being with us here today on this episode of The Sustainability Agenda.

Ghada Nafie: Lisa, it’s such a pleasure to be here with you today. Thank you so much for having me.

Lisa Raitt: I’m delighted. But let’s start with a little bit of context for our listeners. Okay. We hear a lot about energy transition and we know how important it is. We also know lithium is going to be part of it, but how is it currently extracted and why is lithium so critical to the energy transition?

Ghada Nafie: That’s a great question. So governments and the industry face the challenge of reducing the impact of people on the environment. And the one immediate remediation tactic is the large scale conversion of the internal combustion vehicles to electric. All of us have heard about companies going all electric by 2025 or 2030, but the key element that’s needed to power the batteries in these electric vehicles is lithium, and it’s facing a critical shortage. So what we’re looking at is a new processes and ways to extract that lithium and make it more abundant so that it’s available for that transition and it really plays a key role in that.

Lisa Raitt: So what I find interesting, though, is that your tech or your intellectual property, which I understand is patent pending, which is very good, it enables an extraction process that gives you better purity and I guess as well, quantum. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Ghada Nafie: Absolutely. So conventionally, lithium is extracted from Latin America, from the lithium triangle. Water is pumped out of the ground. It evaporates by 50% and takes about 12 to 18 months to have a lithium product. But that product is concentrated, needs to be shipped so that lithium is separated and upgraded to battery. The promise of the industry in the world to go transition was based on the development of technologies called direct lithium extraction or DLE technologies. These technologies have been facing several challenges to scale to deliver on that promise to support the energy transition. At Litus, we’ve developed a new process using nanoparticles to extract that lithium right from the source in a more significantly effective, economical and environmentally sound manner than all of the current methods that are being employed. Materials that are designed to extract lithium and only lithium right from the source with high selectivity, especially from low concentrations. And that unlocks a huge resource of lithium that can now become economic and play an important role in that transition.

Lisa Raitt: I bet. That’s very exciting, actually. Before we still talk a little bit more about lithium extraction in Canada, I did want to ask you a couple of questions. We’re featuring women entrepreneurs in the clean energy, clean tech space, and I always want to know what were some of the challenges that you faced on this road to entrepreneurship and how did you overcome them? Because clearly you made it. You’re here today.

Ghada Nafie: Well, thank you. The big one that I can think about is lithium is very hot. We came into a market that quickly became flooded. Our biggest strength is in the team is the fact that we are a science based team with a very strong background. We have some of the best nano chemists and materials scientists in the world who have been able to scale up and commercialize technologies in the past. So we’ve built a business model to very quickly differentiate us from others in the space, and it’s very based on customer revenue and working very closely with exciting customers, building a funnel there. And that allows us to see success extracting lithium immediately. So it’s pushed us to be very strategic, very economical in our research, marketing and overall plans. And it also ensured that we’ve developed a solution that is sound, that works and that is very customer focused, ensuring that solves some of the world’s problems in lithium extraction today.

Lisa Raitt: Amazing. Now you are an accomplished researcher. You’re also an educator. What made you want to go into science?

Ghada Nafie: Well, ever since I was a little girl, I was fascinated by science, technology and engineering. I grew up in the US in Egypt and I was more interested in how buildings were constructed than by what they held inside. I wondered what things around us was made of, the moon when, you know, when I saw my mom cooking, I always considered that science dressed up in food and other things. So STEM was really for me, it was the one thing that made me feel that I, you know, I can excel and actually be really productive. I was also very lucky to have joined a group at the university who I knew very quickly that I can excel with, that I can grow, that we can all develop something that can be impactful in the world.

Lisa Raitt: That’s pretty cool. And you know, it can be a leap to move from university academia into entrepreneurship and business. But you guys seem to be holding true to your science and building the business plan around that.

Ghada Nafie: Absolutely. It is a huge transition. I remember when we were moving out of the university at the very beginning, I was very sad. I couldn’t believe that a lab that I spent six years in, my fume hood, my bench, we’re going to go away and I wasn’t going to see them again. But I cannot explain how exciting it was to get into our own space, into a facility that we grew into and were able to manufacture our solids, test our technology, scale it and build a large demo unit and to realize that all of that work, the research, the years that we’ve put into this development is finally coming to life into a large unit. It is very satisfying. It is one of the best feelings I can possibly describe in this world.

Lisa Raitt: And you know what, I was going to ask you, what can we do to encourage more women and girls to pursue science, but you just gave me the answer. You’re excited about the fact that you’ve had a discovery that you’re going to be able to give to the world at a price and help with our clean energy transition.

Ghada Nafie: Absolutely. I’m always so passionate about what I do, and I really love connecting with people along the way. I’ve been involved in the STEM community and in the start-up community, and I’m conscious about the efforts that needs to be there by me as a role model, mentor and just simply a friendly face in the community every time I get a chance. So I try to participate in events encouraging women and girls to pursue the STEM pathway. We certainly are all working to increase that number. And one of the biggest things I really aim to do is to support in removing some of the barriers that I have faced throughout my journey being very difficult. Of course, as a woman in engineering, that’s the first level of minority. As a visible minority in the space, getting into lithium and into mining. I’m talking about a very small percentage in that space. So it is not an easy path and it certainly had its challenges. And I’m hoping that I’m really supporting the next generation that comes through that door by making things easier for them, by passing all of my experience, the knowledge, by supporting and mentoring and giving back to the community.

Lisa Raitt: You bet. If you can see it, you can be it. That’s the key for all of this. So good for you, Ghada, I really appreciate your thoughts on that. So let’s just go back now to the business side of it. What is needed in Canada to scale up clean lithium extraction?

Ghada Nafie: That is an excellent question. Thank you. So lithium is being recognized worldwide as a strategic critical metal to curb climate change. And I would say that the faster Canada is able to support the creation of the entire lithium value chain and not just the extraction, we will be more and more positioned as a global leader in that space and we have all of the parameters that makes us just a global player. We have been for several years in the energy industry and now with the clean tech, the geological formation, the rich geological formation, Canada has the expertise, the ability to build, deliver and grow is certainly all there. So it’s about capitalizing on all of these great things that we have in Canada and building an industry that can attract the world and be a global leader in it.

Lisa Raitt: I agree. But if you’re a lithium producer out there listening to it right now, what does a solution like Litus do for them?

Ghada Nafie: Litus enables the extraction of lithium. We want to make lithium more abundant, more accessible, more efficient and environmental. It is a technology that we’ve developed every part of it to be truly clean, leaving minimal environmental impact. We’ve scaled up our extraction process twice and we’ve seen great performance, higher efficiencies, and we’re excited about what that does to any lithium producer out there. We’re happy to work with our customers. We’re excited to implement the solution and to really show the world how turnkey it is and grow in that space.

Lisa Raitt: Amazing. Thank you very much, Dr. Nafie. I really appreciate your time. And before you go, I just want to you know, you’re very busy and it’s for good reason. In 2022, you won a pitch competition award from the Firehood at the iconic Toronto Elevate 2022 Tech Fest. And you’re also the first place winner at Inventures 2022 in the navigating to net zero category. We are very proud of you and you’re a great role model and I wish you all the best. And thank you so much for being part of our podcast today.

Ghada Nafie: Thank you so much, Lisa. Thank you so much for having me.

Lisa Raitt: Please join us next time as we tackle some of sustainability’s biggest questions providing different perspectives to help you move forward. I’m your host, Lisa Raitt, and this is The Sustainability Agenda.

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