Founded on a specific gap in DLE process control
In 2023, engineers who had built real-time control systems for industrial electrochemical processes started noticing the same pattern: DLE operations with sophisticated electrode hardware running fixed-setpoint control schedules set during commissioning and rarely updated. EELI is the answer to that specific problem.
A control problem that kept appearing in the same form
Mert and Lena were both working on real-time control software for industrial electrochemical processing environments when the commercial DLE wave started. The conversations they kept having with DLE operators followed a consistent pattern: good electrode hardware, careful commissioning, and then a control layer that would not adapt when brine chemistry drifted outside the commissioning-era range.
The result in practice was 10 to 20 percent of potential recovery left on the table not from electrode limitations but from setpoint lag. EELI was founded to close that specific gap with a control layer purpose-built for electrochemical DLE rather than adapted from a generic industrial SCADA framework.
Dario joined shortly after to lead process engineering, bringing deep experience in hydrometallurgical brine chemistry and pilot-scale lithium recovery across multiple source types. The three of them are still the entire team, still the ones you talk to when you contact EELI.
Field-calibrated claims
We publish performance numbers from our own pilots against specific brine chemistries. We do not extrapolate those numbers to claim general results or apply them to brine chemistries we have not tested. If we have not measured it, we say so.
Open architecture
EELI works on top of whatever PLC and sensor infrastructure you already have via standard industrial protocols. We do not require proprietary hardware, and we do not create dependencies that would make it difficult to change direction. Your safety interlocks remain yours and remain authoritative.
Single-problem focus
We do electrochemical DLE process control and nothing else. This is not a DLE module inside a larger industrial control suite. Staying focused on one hard problem is how we keep the state estimator, the fouling detection algorithm, and the cycle optimizer at a level of specificity that general-purpose platforms cannot match.
The team
Three engineers who have spent their careers at the intersection of electrochemical processing and industrial control software.
Mert Akin
CEO and Co-Founder
Electrochemical systems engineer with a background building process control software for industrial mineral extraction and water treatment operations. Led control system design for a large-scale electrochemical processing deployment before co-founding EELI.
Lena Kruger
CTO and Co-Founder
Signals and control systems engineer focused on real-time industrial electrochemical monitoring. Previous work building continuous measurement platforms for a chemical manufacturing environment shaped EELI's approach to on-stack impedance sensing and state estimation architecture.
Dario Restrepo
Head of Process Engineering
Hydrometallurgical process engineer with deep experience in brine chemistry analysis and pilot-scale lithium recovery across salar and geothermal sources. Brings the field side of DLE process knowledge that grounds EELI's control logic in what electrode systems actually encounter in operation.
Where we are and what we focus on
2023
Year founded in Salt Lake City, UT
3
Brine source types the platform addresses
1
Product, one problem, no diversification
SLC
Proximity to Western US lithium brine projects
Work with the team directly
We are a small team and we run every pilot engagement ourselves. When you contact EELI, you talk to an engineer who knows the electrode control problem in detail, not a sales layer.