One World Lithium Deploys Nanobubble Equipment to UCI and UBC
One World Lithium (CSE: OWLI) says it has completed delivery of industrial nanobubble generators built by Moleaer to the University of California, Irvine and the University of British Columbia. The installation moves the company's single-step direct lithium carbonation extraction (DLCE) process out of the laboratory and toward a mobile, containerized pilot plant.
The deployment builds on bench-scale work that produced two patent-pending applications in June 2023. In June 2026, One World Lithium engaged the two universities to work alongside nanobubble specialist Moleaer on accelerating the DLCE research program. Funding arrived in August, when the company closed the first tranche of a non-brokered private placement, issuing 7,547,142 units at CAD $0.035 each to finance technology development and working capital.
The technology uses carbon dioxide nanobubbles to separate lithium from natural brines, aiming for direct lithium carbonate production without sulfuric acid, soda ash, sorbents, or the multiple energy-intensive concentration stages required by conventional evaporation ponds and standard direct lithium extraction flowsheets. Research teams will also evaluate co-production of sodium, calcium, magnesium, and potassium carbonates from the same brines, and a second phase will test slurries made from lithium-bearing clays. The first field-test pilot plant is to be assembled at Moleaer's Los Angeles facilities, with work scheduled to begin in early 2027.
What It Means for Equipment Procurement
Although the headlines are about lithium chemistry, the hardware in play is fluid-handling equipment, and that is where the procurement lessons sit. Brine service is corrosive and scaling-prone, so every wetted component in a DLCE train—from nanobubble generators to the pumps and piping that move brine and CO2—faces demanding material selection questions that deserve early metallurgical review. The commercial appeal of a single-step flowsheet is also an equipment story: eliminating pre-concentration, base concentration, and post-concentration stages removes entire classes of pumps, thickeners, and energy-hungry machinery from the plant layout, cutting both capital cost and the long-lead procurement list. For vendors, a containerized pilot plant like the one planned for Moleaer's Los Angeles site is an entry ticket: pilot-scale orders are small, but being the specified supplier when a process scales is worth far more than the first invoice. Suppliers of nanobubble systems, corrosion-resistant pumps, and modular skid packages should treat early-stage brine projects as a pipeline to cultivate now, since the early-2027 field test gives vendors a defined window to align on specifications before scale-up procurement begins.