If fusion power proves successful, and indications suggest it may, the global demand for lithium is expected to surge significantly. This is the premise behind Licube, a startup that has acquired technology from Hirosaki University in Japan to purify lithium-6, the specific isotope required by fusion plants to generate their own fuel from naturally occurring lithium. The necessity arises from the fuel supply chain. Numerous factors must align for fusion power to be integrated into the energy grid, and one critical element is the availability of fuel. Most proposed facilities would operate using a combination of two isotopes: deuterium and tritium. While deuterium is readily accessible, tritium is exceedingly scarce in nature, and it is widely acknowledged within the fusion community that there is insufficient tritium to support all planned facilities.
The suggested solution is to produce tritium on-site within the power plant. A fusion reaction emits a stream of high-energy particles known as neutrons. Startups intend to encase the reactor in a layer of lithium, enabling neutrons to collide with lithium atoms, resulting in the atoms splitting into helium and tritium. This tritium can subsequently be collected, refined, and reintroduced into the reactor as fuel. However, not all lithium is equally effective for this purpose. It exists in two slightly different isotopes, lithium-6 and lithium-7, differentiated by their atomic weights. Lithium-6 is significantly more efficient at capturing neutrons and generating tritium, yet it constitutes only about 7.5% of natural lithium, with the remainder being the heavier lithium-7. The separation of these isotopes is challenging, and current capacity for such processes is limited, leaving a shortfall in lithium-6 supply.
Licube aims to address this issue and sees a substantial market opportunity in doing so. “If fusion comes online, it should be a $50 billion market by 2040,” stated Yohei Kiguchi, co-founder and CEO of Licube, according to hinews. Licube is among 20 startups showcasing their innovations on Tuesday at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco as part of the Startup Battlefield pitch competition. Although fusion holds the promise of capturing a significant share of the multi-trillion-dollar energy market, fusion startups remain several years away from realizing their first operational power plants. “Fusion is the biggest market in the future, but we also understand the future might be late by a few years,” Kiguchi remarked.
In the interim, Licube plans to utilize its technology to purify lithium for applications in the semiconductor, pharmaceutical, fission reactor, and aerospace industries. The core technology relies on an electrolyzer, a device that employs electrical current to facilitate chemical reactions. In Licube’s process, lithium is dissolved in a liquid on one side of a ceramic membrane. As electrical current traverses the membrane, lithium-6 migrates more rapidly. Licube can then extract this liquid and isolate the lithium-6, aiming to enrich it to a purity level of at least 99.995%. This highly enriched lithium can then be utilized by fusion companies in their fuel breeding systems.
Kiguchi was motivated to establish Licube following a visit to ITER, the experimental fusion reactor under construction in southern France. He noted that he was residing just a couple of hours’ drive away in Monaco after retiring from his previous venture, Enechange, an energy-switching platform in Japan. “I found out that I was too young to retire,” he reflected. “I’m an energy guy. I want to do something bigger.”
