“We have the ambition to be one of the largest producers of green lithium in Europe.” This was one of the key ideas left by the president of Bondalti, João de Mello, in an interview with Jornal de Negócios published today, as part of the announcement of the establishment of Lifthium Energy, a new company in the group dedicated to the refining of green lithium.
After entering the water treatment segment, with Bondalti Water, the establishment of Lifthium Energy is Bondalti's most recent step in expanding its activity to new business areas, focused on sectors with a high contribution to the fulfillment of sustainability and decarbonization goals.
With tests taking place at a pilot plant in Canada, Lifthium Energy is already in progress with the project for a first plant in Portugal, and plans to expand its operations to new units, each of which could mean an investment of approximately 400 million euros. The immediate objective is to have a refining capacity of 50,000 tons per year, with room to accelerate production, so as to have more than two million cars a year powered by electric batteries containing lithium hydroxide supplied by this business area.
As part of this launch, João de Mello stated that “the technological ecosystem proposed by Lifthium Energy represents an important contribution to achieving the major goals of decarbonizing the economy, providing sustainability and circularity along the lithium value chain. It is a project that embodies our vision of a European lithium hub, allowing for shorter and lower carbon logistics chains, and reducing Europe's external dependence on this matter”. Currently, around 90% of the lithium destined for batteries comes from China.
Referring to the start-up of the water treatment area, with Bondalti Water, João de Mello also underlined his intention to enter the biogas business, which he considers “a strategic component”. It is about “completing our offer”, allowing client companies to “take advantage of waste that results from water treatment and transform it into biogas that can be burned in their boilers to decarbonize their respective environmental footprint”. João de Mello estimates that the biogas segment could represent sales of 60 to 70 million euros over the next six years.
As administrator of CEFIC - European Chemical Industry Council, the president of Bondalti recalled in the interview with “Negócios” that “there is an ambition for decarbonization, for the electrification of the economy and for industrialization [...] but if there is no chemical industry nothing you want to do will happen”. He added: “To see more renewable energy, more industries that can lead to the goals being met, things have to be done faster and with more speed in licensing.”
