Controlled Thermal Resources Limited has appointed Hargrove Engineers & Constructors as engineering contractor on the company’s $1-billion program to recover lithium sustainably from sub-surface geothermal brine in Imperial County, CA.
Hargrove, a full-service engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPC) firm, has extensive experience delivering large scale industrial projects in the power and chemicals sectors. With 10,000+ successful projects in the chemicals industry and 4,000 in mid-stream and refining, the Hargrove team has involvement in more than 450 defense and aerospace programs and 1,500 petrochemicals projects. Hargrove has a team of 215 process engineers with chemicals, petrochemicals, and refining experience.
Direct lithium recovery from geothermal brines is a positive industry disruptor as it uses a closed-loop process to recover lithium sustainably and return brine to the geothermal reservoir deep beneath the earth. This method utilizes 100% renewable power and steam to produce battery-grade lithium products in one location with a close-to-zero carbon footprint.
Located within the Salton Sea Geothermal Field in southern California, CTR’s Hell’s Kitchen project expects to produce 49.9MW of renewable power and 25,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide from its first stage. The Hell’s Kitchen project has a projected resource capacity to produce 1,100MW of baseload renewable power and ~300,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) products per year.
Hargrove’s team is currently completing FEL-3 activities and commencing detail design in preparation for construction commencement in 2023.
CTR will open a satellite development office at Hargrove in Houston to support Hargrove in their delivery of the project.