AlkaLi Labs is developing biosorbents that extract critical minerals from abundant industrial waste streams. This technology overcomes key limitations of conventional mining from low-grade resources because it is tolerant to contaminants and effective at low concentrations. Further, this breakthrough unlocks significant domestic mineral resources, positioning the United States for supply chain independence.
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Luis Valencia
Luis Valencia is the co-founder and CEO of AlkaLi Labs, a biomining company developing biosorbents to extract valuable metals from low-grade waste streams. Valencia earned a B.S. in biochemistry from University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from UC Berkeley in the Keasling Lab. His career focus has been on protein and metabolic engineering for industrial biosynthesis. Valencia is passionate about applying biochemistry to challenges where conventional chemical methods fall short.
Jacob Roberts
Jacob Roberts is the CTO and co-founder of AlkaLi Labs, a startup using genetically engineered microbes to extract critical minerals from industrial waste. A proud Buffalo native, Roberts studied applied physics at Cornell University before working as a software engineer at Google X. He later pivoted to biotechnology, earning a Ph.D. in bioengineering in the Keasling Lab, part of UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he met his AlkaLi co-founder, Luis Valencia.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Global demand for lithium and rare earth elements is rising fast, yet most extraction still relies on limited, high-grade conventional resources. Meanwhile, huge amounts of these critical minerals sit untapped in domestic unconventional resources, like low-grade industrial wastewater and other secondary resources. In a world that is transitioning to renewable energy, there’s a significant oncoming demand for these minerals and not enough production capacity to meet it. As conventional supplies fall short, and the United States seeks to create stable domestic supply chains for raw materials, there’s an urgent need for new technologies that are capable of working with low-grade resources.
Technology Vision
AlkaLi Labs is engineering microbes to act as biosorbents that can selectively extract valuable minerals from low-grade industrial waste streams. Unlike conventional methods, this biological approach can work with complex, low-concentration resources without extensive pre-treatment. This approach can recover metals from resources that were previously too diluted or contaminated to be mined, and it opens access to large, unconventional mineral supplies in the United States and abroad. AlkaLi Labs’ technology expands the range of viable feedstocks, ultimately helping to close the gap between growing mineral demand and limited high-grade reserves.
Potential for Impact
AlkaLi Labs’ technology has the potential to make the United States lithium independent by unlocking vast domestic reserves found in low-grade brines that are sizable enough to meet projected future demand. It also broadens the range of usable feedstocks for other critical minerals such as rare earth elements by enabling extraction from secondary resources. This innovation could support the development of a robust and environmentally responsible domestic mining industry. It would also help ensure a stable supply chain for clean-energy materials and help accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies.
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AlkaLi Labs