Licube wants to be the fuel provider to the fusion power industry — see how at TechCrunch Disrupt
Fusion power plants will need a lot of lithium, and Licube is preparing to be a key supplier.
Key points
- Licube has licensed technology from Hirosaki University in Japan to purify lithium-6 for fusion fuel.
- Fusion plants need lithium-6 to breed tritium, which is extremely rare in nature.
- Licube CEO Yohei Kiguchi estimates the fusion fuel market could reach $50 billion by 2040.
Licube, a startup that has licensed technology from Hirosaki University in Japan, aims to become a fuel provider for the fusion power industry. The company purifies lithium-6, the form of lithium that fusion plants need to produce their own fuel, from naturally occurring lithium. Licube is one of 20 startups presenting onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco as part of the Startup Battlefield pitch competition.
Why lithium-6 matters
Most planned fusion plants would run on a mix of deuterium and tritium. Deuterium is easy to come by, but tritium is extremely rare in nature, and there is not enough of it to power every planned plant. The proposed workaround is to make tritium on site by surrounding the reactor with a blanket of lithium, so that when a neutron strikes a lithium atom, the atom splits into helium and tritium.
Lithium-6 is far better at capturing neutrons and producing tritium, but it makes up only about 7.5% of natural lithium. Separating lithium-6 from the heavier lithium-7 is difficult, and there is little capacity to do it today.
If fusion comes online, it should be a $50 billion market by 2040.
— Yohei Kiguchi, co-founder and CEO of Licube
Technology and near-term plans
Licube's core technology is based on the electrolyzer. Lithium is dissolved in a liquid on one side of a ceramic membrane; as electrical current flows, lithium-6 moves faster and can be drawn off. The goal is to enrich lithium to at least 99.995% lithium-6.
Until fusion becomes a major market, Licube plans to use the same technology to purify lithium for semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, fission reactors, and spacecraft industries. CEO Yohei Kiguchi said, "If fusion comes online, it should be a $50 billion market by 2040." He also noted, "Fusion is the biggest market in the future, but we also understand the future might be late by a few years."
