Vulcan Energy Takes Adsorbent Production In-House, Betting on Licensing as a Second Revenue Stream
Published on 09/22/2026 at 02:50 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Vulcan Energy has begun commercial output of VULSORB, its proprietary alumina-based adsorbent, at a German facility — a step that hands the lithium developer full control over a key input for its direct lithium extraction (DLE) process and opens the door to selling the material to outside operators.
The company confirmed the start of manufacturing this week, saying the in-house route shields it from supply bottlenecks for chemical precursors and keeps the timeline to first production at its extraction columns firmly in its own hands. The initial volumes are earmarked for commissioning the columns at Project Lionheart, the flagship venture spanning the German-French Upper Rhine Valley.
A Western Answer to Export Controls
The timing is pointed. China imposed export controls on adsorption and extraction technologies for DLE at the beginning of 2025, tightening access for mining and brine projects worldwide to established processing methods. Because VULSORB is produced entirely through a European supply chain and rests on Western intellectual property rights, Vulcan is positioning itself as one of the few Western suppliers able to offer a financeable alternative at industrial scale.
Vulcan holds both the formulation and the manufacturing process itself. Company testing showed the material achieving lithium extraction efficiency of up to 95% across thousands of cycles. Producing the full volume required for Lionheart is expected to take between 18 and 24 months of operation, with the company guiding to a full-scale production run over the next 24 months.
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Lionheart Timeline and Output Targets
Lionheart is slated to enter regular operation in the second half of 2028. The project is designed for annual output of 24,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate — enough, on paper, to equip roughly 500,000 electric vehicles. It pairs battery-metal extraction with deep geothermal energy to build a local, low-emission supply chain.
Across a planned 30-year operating life, the Upper Rhine plant is also intended to deliver baseload renewable power. Beyond the lithium hydroxide, Vulcan is targeting annual feed-in of 275 gigawatt-hours of electricity and 560 gigawatt-hours of heat for surrounding communities and industrial customers.
Licensing Ambitions Through VULTEC
Vulcan does not intend to keep VULSORB to itself. Through its technology arm VULTEC, the company plans to license the adsorbent selectively to international operators of lithium brine projects, creating a potential revenue line that sits apart from its own core ventures in the Upper Rhine Graben.
The operational groundwork is being laid in parallel. Roughly two weeks ago, Vulcan secured its second extraction licence, named Ilka, covering the Landau geothermal area; after a six-year term it is set to convert into a permit valid for more than 30 years. Management under Managing Director Cris Moreno is also advancing the broader pipeline. For the second phase, Project Ludwig near Ludwigshafen, the company filed a preliminary feasibility study putting development capital at EUR 1.26 billion in real terms and envisaging 21,100 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year over a 30-year operating period. A final investment decision on Ludwig will wait until Lionheart has started up successfully.
Board Reshuffle Meets a Weak Share Price
Leadership changes have accompanied the operational news. About a week ago, Angus Barker took over as independent Non-Executive Chair, while founder Dr. Francis Wedin is concentrating on project development and the VULTEC technology unit.
Equity markets have yet to reward the milestones. Vulcan Energy shares closed at EUR 1.38, and the stock is down 46% since the start of the year — a decline that underscores the cautious mood surrounding lithium developers. With a market capitalisation of EUR 660.73 million, the company's valuation remains well below the estimated construction costs of its next expansion stages.
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