Producer
Albemarle
U.S.-based specialty chemicals company and the world's largest lithium producer by capacity. Operates Greenbushes (Australia, JV with Tianqi), Silver Peak (Nevada), and Chile's Atacama brine.
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Lithium (World #1 by Capacity)
60%Bromine (World #1)
25%Ketjen Catalysts (Refining Solutions)
15%
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Origin2023
Albemarle was spun off from Ethyl Corporation in 1994. Ethyl Corporation was founded in 1924 as a joint venture between General Motors, Standard Oil of New Jersey, and DuPont specifically to commercialize tetraethyllead (TEL) — the octane-boosting additive for gasoline that caused lead poisoning in children and workers for 60+ years. Ethyl Corporation fought scientific evidence linking leaded gasoline to health harms from 1924 until TEL was finally banned in US gasoline in 1996. The specialty chemicals business (bromine, catalysts, lithium) was separated as Albemarle before the final TEL phase-out. Today, Albemarle is the world's largest lithium producer for EV batteries — the cleanest major transportation fuel technology. The company whose parent invented the chemical that poisoned children through leaded gasoline is now the world's dominant supplier of the chemical that enables zero-emission electric vehicles. Leaded gasoline company's spinoff makes clean energy batteries.
Albemarle Corporation ↗Did you know2023
Albemarle is simultaneously the world's largest lithium producer (enabling EV batteries) AND the world's largest bromine producer — and their bromine goes into TBBPA (tetrabromobisphenol-A), the dominant flame retardant in FR4 epoxy glass laminates used in every printed circuit board in every electronic device. TBBPA is persistent in the environment and the food chain; environmental groups have sought to restrict it for decades. Albemarle is therefore the dominant supplier of the chemical enabling clean electric transport (lithium) AND the dominant supplier of the halogenated flame retardant that makes electronics fire-safe but bioaccumulates in organisms (bromine/TBBPA). They also sell FCC catalysts that help oil refineries make gasoline more efficiently — simultaneously supporting petroleum combustion AND the transition away from it. The same specialty chemicals company is essential to making the electronics that EVs need, the batteries EVs run on, and the gasoline they're supposed to replace.
Albemarle Corporation ↗