We Cannot Build the New Energy System Using the Tools of the Old Energy System - Alex Grant

Watch live at:

https://energy.stanford.edu/events/energy-seminar/seminar-livestream

The lithium ion battery is solidifying its role as the technology platform that underpins the new energy system. Fake solutions like hydrogen are falling by the wayside as they are becoming better understood as less efficient than batteries in competitive use cases or suffer significant contamination by legacy oil and gas interests, while investors are pouring tens of billions of dollars into lithium ion gigafactories all around the world. For the lithium ion energy technology platform to reduce the impacts of the global energy system as much as possible, the supply chains that underpin lithium ion must also be rapidly expanded and revolutionized.

In this talk, Alex Grant will discuss his work on lithium extraction technology innovation to produce lithium chemicals from previously neglected lower grade, less pure resources which have the potential to radically reduce CO2, water, and land use impacts of the battery supply chain. He will also discuss his work in life cycle assessment of lithium extraction and processing, and share with the battery technology ecosystem suggestions for how to help ensure the battery supply chain is as minimally impactful as possible.

Speaker bio

Alex is Principal at Jade Cove Partners. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Energy for 2021, and Partner at Minviro where he builds environmental impact models of lithium-ion battery supply chain processes. He is a technology innovation advisor at Zelandez, a lithium brinefield services company with operations in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, and a research affiliate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Alex co-founded Lilac Solutions, a Silicon Valley lithium extraction technology company funded by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures and others.

Alex has an M.S. from Northwestern University in Chemical Engineering and a B.Eng. from McGill University in Chemical Engineering & Philosophy. You can find Alex on Linkedin, Twitter, or email. He is based in beautiful San Francisco, California.

https://energy.stanford.edu/energy-seminar/upcoming-energy-seminars