(don't) Waste Water! | Water Tech to Solve the World | S9E4 - How 'Reverse ZLD' made the World's Largest Water Company a Lithium Refinery Expert

Description

with 🎙️ Jim Rieke - VP of Process Engineering at Veolia Water Technologies

💧 Veolia Water Technologies specializes in water treatment solutions while providing a complete range of services for industrial & public authorities

What we covered:

👷 How HPD onboards all its hires through its service and commissioning groups and how that's the best learning experience to Veolia Water Technologies' portfolio

🤝 How the milestone Naraha Lithium Refinery reference started through a collaboration between Orocobre (now, Allkem) and HPD and what was the step by step road to success

🚢 What's the magic that turns Lithium Carbonate in South America into Lithium Hydroxide Monohydrate in Japan

🧩 How there might be standard building blocks but how every lithium carbonate is slightly different and hence requires a tailor-made lithium refining process

🏭 Where do impurities appear in a lithium refinery process and how to remove them to guarantee a battery-grade output

🧰 How extracting lithium from clay is still a very new process and what it changes in the lithium refinery set up

🛠️ How Veolia Water Technologies' holistic approach is a key differentiator in the development of a lithium refinery

🌍 How geopolitics and government incentives play a role in the economics of a lithium refinery

👰 How the newly wed SUEZ and Veolia offer an even broader portfolio of complimentary technologies to better serve the lithium market

📈 How DLE "suddenly" makes much more lithium available and how HPD's lithium refinery process copes with the source's specificities

♻️ How batter-grade lithium is just one of the outputs of a lithium refinery: Veolia Water Technologies' expertise also allows to valorize several more by-products along the way

💰 How Veolia Water Technologies' involvement in projects can help get junior lithium companies get financed as a valuable reference partner

🗺️ Building a Lithium Refinery step by step; leaching, evaporation, crystallization, ion exchange: the lithium refinery keywords; lithium refining in the broader scheme of the EV battery vertical; turning sodium sulfate into sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid; empowering circularity... and much more!

🔥 ... and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥

🔗 Come say hi to Jim on Linkedin

🔗 Check Veolia's website

➡️ Check out the entire article on How 'Reverse ZLD' made the World's Largest Water Company a Lithium Refinery Expert

➡️ Reach out to me: antoine@dww.show

More episodes in this Series:

1 - Why Water Technologies Matter in Lithium Mining (And Why You Should Buy Now!)

2 - The Shocking Requirements of Spodumene Processing (and other Lithium 101 stories)

3 - Standard Lithium's 10 Simple Secrets to DLE Success (and how that rolls out in El Dorado)

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About (don't) Waste Water! | Water Tech to Solve the World

❓ Ever wondered how the #WaterIndustry was reacting to our World's Water Challenges? Water Scarcity? #SDG6? PFAS? Climate Change? Circular Economy? Digitization and Smart Water?

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📈 We talk water investment, water tech, water entrepreneurship and water market with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, book authors, scientists, investment funds, VCs, and C-Level experts from water majors.

➡️ Leverage their insights, advice & experience and ensure to stay on top of best practices

🗓️ Tune in every Wednesday (don't miss out! 😅)

🌐 Find all the detailed episode notes, interviews, infographics, and more at http://dww.show

Currently in its 10th Season, the "(don't) Waste Water" podcast has already welcomed around 200 guests from Water Majors (SUEZ, Veolia, Jacobs, Xylem, Kemira, Evoqua, Aquatech, SKion Water...), Scale-Ups (Cambrian Innovation, Epic Cleantec, Liqtech, 374Water, Gingko Bioworks...), Start-Ups (Puraffinity, KETOS, 120Water, ZwitterCo, Membrion, Source...), Universities (Berkeley, the Columbia Water Center), Investment Funds (Sciens Water, Mazarine, Burnt Island Ventures...), Business Accelerators (Imagine H2O, Elemental...), Book Authors (Seth Siegel, David Sedlak, David Lloyd Owen...) or Market Intelligence Companies (BlueTech Research, Global Water Intelligence, World Bank, OECD, Isle Utilities...). Or simply water legends like Mina Guli or Andrew Benedek!

On the "(don't) Waste Water" podcast, I strive to make the Water Industry easy to understand for everyone, starting with water professionals, executives, and investors. Hence, he opens the microphone to seasoned, inspirational water experts to discuss their field of excellence.

No one can claim an all-around in-depth understanding of a matter as complex as Water. But piece by piece, you can rebuild the puzzle. With curiosity, patience, and passion, Antoine Walter explores topics such as Advanced Treatment Technologies, Water-Energy Nexus (Hydrogen, Lithium...), PFAS removal, Nature-Based Solutions, Wastewater Reuse, Distributed Water Treatments, Water Finance, and Water Entrepreneurship.

I actually firmly believe that regular listeners of the "(don't) Waste Water" podcast may, in the end, claim a "Water MBA!"

A particular field of interest is how innovation forms, grows and gets widely adopted in a complex and conservative field like the Water Industry. This may be one of the keys to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal n°6 - #SDG6.

ABOUT ME:

I'm a second-generation Water Professional - the legend says my dad traded excavator sessions for me in river banks against lunch invitations. I followed on this early start by completing a Master's in Hydraulics and Environmental Engineering, then won the "Golden Mission" contest organized by ENGIE (GDF-SUEZ).

This led me to travel the Asia-Pacific region for one year to explore, amongst others, water treatment in Hong Kong, desalination facilities in Melbourne, water distribution management in Jakarta, water innovation in Singapore or social water projects in New Delhi and Gujarat. All of that was documented in videos, blog articles, radio spots, and conferences in engineering and business schools (that's where I got hooked!)

I've then worked for SUEZ in Switzerland in strategic marketing, business development, and sales for the DACH and Nordic regions, with an emphasis on micropollutant removal.

I then joined GF Piping Systems in 2017 to take over the business development for the company's services in Europe, then for all Water Treatment and Lithium topics worldwide.

I've been a regular speaker at conferences on four continents, gave my first TEDx in 2022, and regularly acted as a host.

Since 2020, I've been hosting the "(don't) Waste Water" podcast and giving lectures in Business and Engineering schools.

I'm married, a happy father of three, and I'm French (nobody's perfect 😅).