Licube wants to be the fuel provider to the fusion power industry — see how at TechCrunch Disrupt

https://www.youtube.com/embed/SqkhdhuN6OU?si=NJXmlR-AkIzvllDM&autoplay=1&mute=1

While fusion has the potential to capture a significant chunk of the multitrillion-dollar energy market, fusion startups are still years away from building their first power plants. 

“Fusion is the biggest market in the future, but we also understand the future might be late by a few years,” Kiguchi said.

Until fusion becomes a major market, Licube plans to use the same technology to purify lithium for use in semiconductor, pharmaceutical, fission reactors, and spacecraft industries.

The core technology is based on the electrolyzer, a device that uses electrical current to drive chemical reactions. In Licube’s case, lithium is dissolved in a liquid on one side of a ceramic membrane. As electrical current flows from one side of the membrane to the other, lithium-6 moves faster. Licube can then draw off that liquid and separate the lithium-6.

The goal is to enrich the lithium to at least 99.995% lithium-6. Fusion companies can feed that highly enriched lithium into their fuel breeding systems.

Kiguchi was inspired to start Licube after visiting ITER, the experimental fusion reactor being built in the south of France. He said he was living a couple of hours’ drive away in Monaco after retiring from his previous company, Enechange, an energy-switching platform network in Japan.

“I found out that I was too young to retire,” he said. “I’m an energy guy. I want to do something bigger.”