Application and Analysis of Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis for LiOH Production at High Electrolyte Concentrations: Current Scope and Challenges (original) (raw)
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Analysis of a Process for Producing Battery Grade Lithium Hydroxide by Membrane Electrodialysis
Membranes, 2020
A membrane electrodialysis process was tested for obtaining battery grade lithium hydroxide from lithium brines. Currently, in the conventional procedure, a brine with Li+ 4–6 wt% is fed to a process to form lithium carbonate and further used to produce lithium hydroxide. The disadvantages of this process are its high cost due to several stage requirement and the usage of lime, causing waste generation. The main objective of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining battery grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate, avoiding production of lithium carbonate. A laboratory cell was constructed to study electrochemical kinetics and determine energetic parameters. The effects of current density, electrode material, electrolyte concentration, temperature and cationic membrane (Nafion 115 and Nafion 117) on cell performance were determined. Tests showed that a current density of 1200 A/m2 and temperatures between 75–85 °C allow reduced specific electricity consumption (SEC) (7.25 ...
Highly concentrated HCl and NaOH from brines using electrodialysis with bipolar membranes
Separation and Purification Technology, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Process design for lithium recovery using bipolar membrane electrodialysis system
Separation and Purification Technology, 2016
This study aims to evaluate the effect of LMO (lithium manganese oxide) and enhanced BEDI (bipolar membrane electro-dialysis deionization) on the lithium ion desorption process for the recovery of lithium ions. The factors that influence lithium ion recovery are evaluated in reference to the pH, voltage, flow rates, and number of bipolar membrane sheets to present the optimal conditions. The research findings show that in the desorption of LMO lithium ions, the lower the pH, the higher the desorption rates. When the voltage was 6.5 V per sheet, the desorption rates were approximately 70%, and when flow rates were 0.44 mL/cm 2 •min, the desorption was approximately 30 minutes faster than that at other flow rates. When the number of bipolar membrane sheets was 4, it was possible to control 4 the pH to under 4, a level at which lithium ions adsorbed onto LMO might affect the desorption phenomenon. For a combination of the conditions above, the desorption efficiency of lithium ions was approximately 70%, and the recovery time was reduced by approximately 180 minutes compared to when a chemical process was used for lithium ion desorption.
Membranes
The importance of lithium as a raw material is steadily increasing, especially in the growing markets of grid energy and e-mobility. Today, brines are the most important lithium sources. The rising lithium demand raises concerns over the expandability and the environmental impact of common mining techniques, which are mainly based on the evaporation of brine solutions (Salars) in arid and semiarid areas. In this case, much of the water contained in the brine is lost. Purification processes lead to further water losses of the ecosystems. This calls for new and improved processes for lithium production; one of them is electrodialysis (ED). Electrodialysis offers great potential in accessing lithium from brines in a more environmentally friendly way; furthermore, for the recovery of lithium from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIB), electrodialysis may become a vital technology. The following study focused on investigating the effect of varying brine compositions, different ED operation m...
Separation and Purification Technology, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Lithium carbonate recovery from brines using membrane electrolysis
Journal of Membrane Science, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2018
Exploring the lithium resources in concentrated seawater/salt lake brine could provide necessary support for the sustainable development in future. Selective-electrodialysis (S-ED, equipped with monovalent selective ion-exchange membranes) is considered as an effective way to reduce the ratio of magnesium to lithium in concentrated seawater/salt lake brines. However, the effectiveness of the prefractionation of lithium chloride from brine is not clearly investigated, because both seawater and salt lake brines are complex mixtures. Nowadays, only simple systems with binary or ternary cations system have been investigated. Based on a clean production process for the utilization of concentrated seawater/salt lake brine, the prefractionation of LiCl from concentrated seawater/salt lake brines by S-ED was investigated in this work. From the concentrated seawater experiments, it is beneficial to improve the R Li (recovery ratio of Li þ) at a higher voltage, but an excessively high working voltage is adverse to the preliminary separation between Li þ and Mg 2þ ; a bigger V C /V D (initial volume ratio of concentrating and desalting solution, V D ¼ 2.5 L in this paper) is favorable to increase R Li and reduce E SEC (specific energy consumption of Li þ). At the optimal voltage of 7 V and V C /V D of 0.6, the mole ratio of LiCl: MgCl 2 : MgSO 4 increased from 1: 2.227: 2.463 to 1: 1.461: 0.085. For the salt lake brines, the optimal voltage for the LiCl prefractionation in the selected brine system was 10 V, which had a higher R Li of 76.45% and an appropriate E SEC of 0.66 kWh/(mol Li). Finally, the parameters of R Li , E SEC and separation effect of LiCl were discussed for the salt lakes of West Taijinar, East Taijinar and Yiliping in China. It is found that the East Taijinar salt lake brine was more suitable to obtain LiCl at a lower E SEC .
Membrane electrolysis for the removal of Mg2+ and Ca2+ from lithium rich brines
Water Research, 2019
Lithium is today an essential raw material for renewable energy technologies and electric mobility. Continental brines as present in the Lithium Triangle are the most abundant and the easiest to exploit lithium sources. Lithium is present in diluted concentrations together with different ions, and it is imperative to fully remove both magnesium and calcium before lithium carbonate can be precipitated. Here we use membrane electrolysis as a novel method to generate hydroxyl groups in situ in a twochamber electrochemical cell with a side crystallizer, omitting the need for chemical addition and not leading to substantial loss of lithium rich brine. Batch electrolysis experiments fully removed more than 99.99% of both Mg 2+ and Ca 2+ for three different native South-American brines treated at current densities ranging from 27 to 350 A m-2 (final concentrations were below ICP detection limit: < 0.05 mg L-1). For a brine containing 3090 mg L-1 of Mg 2+ and 685 mg L-1 of Ca 2+ , 62 kWh m-3 are needed for the full removal of both cations when a current density of 223 A m-2 is employed. Most importantly, the Li + concentration in the brine is not affected. The removed cations are precipitated as Mg(OH) 2 and Ca(OH) 2. Our process has the potential to simultaneously recover lithium, magnesium, and calcium compounds, minimizing waste production.
Desalination, 2017
Electrodialysis (ED) combined with bipolar membrane, a new system known as bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED) has been developed to separate ions from aqueous saline solutions and recover them in their corresponding acids and bases. In this study, separation and recovery of lithium and boron from aqueous solution by BMED method was investigated. Lithium and boron were recovered as LiOH and H 3 BO 3 with BMED, respectively. The influence of process conditions such as applied potential, initial sample volume and pH on BMED performance was monitored. The performance of BMED method increased with an increase in applied voltage but decreased with an increase in initial sample volume. At optimum conditions of 15 V and 0.5 L as initial sample volume, separation and recovery of lithium were 99.6% and 88.3%, respectively, while the respective values for boron were 72.3% and 70.8%. An increase in pH improved separation and recovery of boron more than those of lithium. At pH 12.25, separation and recovery of boron were 95.6% and 78.8%, respectively. The BMED method was found to be effective for simultaneous separation and recovery of lithium and boron from same aqueous solution at optimum operating conditions.
Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 2015
Lithium bromide solution, the working fluid in absorption chillers, is rendered unusable when contaminated via a high concentration of sodium ions. In the present paper, the results of a study on the recovery of lithium ions as lithium hydroxide from sodium-contaminated solution of lithium bromide by batch electrodialysis (ED) process are presented. A four-compartment ED cell was designed and built with the aim of investigating the effects of operating parameters of applied voltage and lithium ion concentration in the feed solution on some objective functions, including, importantly, lithium ions' recovery, specific electricity consumption, and current