A vital component of the batteries at the heart of electric vehicles and grid energy storage, lithium is key to a clean energy future. But producing the silvery-white metal comes with significant environmental costs. Among them is the vast amount of land and time needed to extract lithium from briny water, with large operations running into the dozens of square miles and often requiring over a year to begin production

PureLi wins prestigious Princeton Innovation forum with Solar-Powered Lithium Extraction Breakthrough. This innovation addresses the soaring demand for environmentally sustainable lithium, driven by the electric vehicle and battery industry.

A team of Princeton University researchers have developed a new, sustainable way to extract lithium, a mineral in skyrocketing demand due to its range of applications. The team, called PureLi, is exploring starting a company to bring their technology to the world.

Sean Zheng, CEO and Co-founder of PureLi was selected as one of the four Princeton START Entrepreneurs Fellow, working to translate scholarship at Princeton into tangible impacts for society. This program is part academic fellowship and part startup accelerator.