Electroflow

Electroflow Technologies is a San Bruno, California-based deep tech company developing a novel electrochemical platform to extract lithium and other critical battery materials directly from dilute brines. Their core insight - "Brines over Mines" - is that North American brines contain enough lithium to produce over 300 million electric vehicles, yet roughly 75% of that resource remains inaccessible to conventional Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technologies due to low concentration thresholds (below 200 ppm). Electroflow's proprietary process can unlock these previously uneconomical, dilute brine deposits, dramatically expanding the domestic lithium supply addressable by US producers.

Traditional brine-to-battery-material production requires up to 10 processing steps, consuming large quantities of water and hazardous chemicals while suffering significant lithium losses along the way. Electroflow's electrochemical approach collapses this multi-step process into a streamlined pathway, reducing waste, water consumption, and chemical inputs - all while targeting domestic feedstocks that currently go untapped. The company's team blends electrochemistry, materials science, and mechanical engineering expertise to develop both the extraction technology and downstream cathode synthesis processes.

For the US energy supply chain, Electroflow addresses one of the most critical vulnerabilities: dependence on foreign lithium sources and a highly concentrated, overseas battery materials processing industry. By enabling high-efficiency lithium extraction from domestic low-grade brines, Electroflow could help decouple the US EV and energy storage supply chain from Chinese and South American lithium supply, supporting the goals of the Inflation Reduction Act and national energy security policy. As a Breakthrough Energy Foundation-backed company, it sits at the forefront of next-generation domestic critical minerals processing.