Energy Exploration Technologies, Inc. (EnergyX) has a mission to become a worldwide leader in the global transition to sustainable energy. Founded in 2018, the company is fundamentally changing the way humanity is powering our world and storing clean energy with breakthrough lithium-ion technology and energy storage solutions.
The Process Engineer will translate EnergyX’s separation advances into technologies such as electrodialysis, solvent extraction, brine pretreatment, adsorption, and ion exchange scaling from bench to pilot and demonstration scale leading to commercialization. The role will lead a team responsible for process development, flowsheet design, simulations, equipment sizing, and specifications, piping, and developing PFDs, PIDs, HAZID, and HAZOPs for various scales of plants. The position will be responsible for optimizing and operating demonstration plants and play a lead role in technology transfer to commercialization.
Responsibilities
Work on a team of experienced EnergyX scientists in research and development focused on disruptive materials and engineering systems to fundamentally transform scientific aspects of the energy industry including:
- Lead EnergyX novel lithium extraction materials and technologies scale-up to commercial scale.
- Engage with EPC contractors to deliver demonstration and commercial plants.
- Optimize the existing demonstration plants for the process and equipment, translate pilot and demo results to process and equipment design criteria, and deliver the engineering concepts to the commercial engineering.
- Manage and mentor engineering staff in materials production and process development in areas of membrane production and separation, electrodialysis, ion exchange/adsorption and solvent extraction.
- Track and communicate the results of laboratory and pilot projects to design, production, and materials engineers.
- Evaluate the state of the industry techniques and equipment for future lab and pilot testing capabilities.
- Translate process concepts to tangible process engineering design and equipment design criteria to detailed equipment sizing.
- Convert technical information from laboratory and pilot to demo and commercial process systems.
- Coordinate testing and piloting with contract laboratories.
- Interface with equipment vendors to procure equipment to specifications.
- Oversee development and implementation process plants at all scales.
- Assess competitive technologies and their applications and collaborate with R&D team to design experiments to evaluate technologies.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Engineering (Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, or Minerals Engineering)
- Minimum 5 years of work experience in process development, piloting, scale-up, and operations.
- Hands-on experience working in the pilot and demo plants, running tests, process trouble-shooting and process equipment
- Understands integrating technology into overall process design.
- Experience with typical hydrometallurgical unit operations, specifically membrane separation, ion exchange, evaporation, crystallization, and solvent extraction technologies.
- Experienced with project development, management, and delivery.
Additional Requirements
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, changing priorities, fuzzy scopes startup environment.
- Understanding of techniques applicable for lithium extraction, separation, recovery, and refining.
- General knowledge of the water/brine treatment, water desalination, membrane, energy storage, and lithium industries.
- Strong knowledge of unit operation functionality including understanding the strengths and weaknesses of various unit operations and their limitations.
- Conducting engineering calculations, mass and energy balances, process modeling, and process equipment design.
- Experienced in drafting process engineering documents, such as PFD, P&ID, control philosophy, process design criteria.
- Strong capital cost and operating cost knowledge of relevant processes, equipment, and unit operations.
- Integrating safety in design, Process Safety, HAZOP, and HAZID.
- Effective communication skills as related to the board, partners, and investors including presentation skills at meetings and conferences.
- Capable of producing technical reports, engineering drawings, slides, summary reports
Benefits:
- Competitive pay
- Paid time-off, holidays, and sick time
- 401(k) with employer match
- Equity Package
- Medical, dental and vision benefits with employer contribution; voluntary benefits available
- Company-sponsored events
EnergyX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with EnergyX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Top Skills
What We Do
EnergyX is a sustainable energy company focused on direct lithium extraction, refinery and battery technology. Combining these technologies from brine to battery will create a process dramatically lowering the cost of lithium resources. The company’s goal is to develop technology and assets that turn it into one of the premier, low-cost lithium providers for the growing lithium-ion battery industry. The electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage revolution is generating high demand for lithium, with some analysts forecasting orders-of-magnitude demand increases. As the EV market rapidly expands, millions of large-scale battery packs will be in demand. The estimated annual production of EV’s is 20,000,000 per year. For one 85-kWh car, the price of the lithium in the battery is approximately $2,945 per car. Residential (home) and commercial batteries are also gaining market demand traction, and California has implemented law stating by 2020 all new homes will require solar arrays. Companies already producing lithium are attempting to increase production as battery cell manufacturers are scaling up lithium-ion production with mega factories and actively acquiring raw materials through long term off-take supply agreements. In the Lithium Triangle, where 50-70% of the world’s known lithium reserve is located, current methods of extraction are based off outdated, natural evaporation pond technology, which takes 18 months, and loses 50-70% of the lithium due to co-precipitation. Our solution is to optimize and apply a highly scalable lithium extraction membrane to the process. The ability to efficiently extract and aggregate the lithium elements from the salt brines using proprietary, multi-level, synthetic ion separation techniques can increase time efficiency by 100x and recovery rate by 300%.
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