Method of recovering lithium from a lithium source

A method of recovering lithium from a lithium source, comprising:

• treating an aqueous source or a derivative thereof to yield a purified lithium intermediate, wherein treating the aqueous source or the derivative thereof includes:
• extracting lithium from the aqueous source or derivative thereof using direct lithium extraction in an extraction stage;
• and
• purifying the aqueous source or derivative thereof, in a purification stage;
• in a post-extraction concentration stage, concentrating the purified lithium intermediate or a derivative thereof to yield a lithium concentrate, wherein concentrating the purified lithium intermediate or derivative thereof uses a membrane distillation operation downstream of a non-thermal membrane separation operation that includes forward osmosis, reverse osmosis, osmotically assisted reverse osmosis, counter-flow reverse osmosis, pressure retarded osmosis, membrane pervaporation, or a combination thereof;
• and
• in a monovalent impurity stage, removing monovalent impurities from the lithium concentrate or a derivative thereof to yield a purified lithium concentrate.

A method of recovering lithium from a lithium source, comprising:

• treating an aqueous source or a derivative thereof to yield a purified lithium intermediate, wherein treating the aqueous source or the derivative thereof includes:
• extracting lithium from the aqueous source or derivative thereof using direct lithium extraction in an extraction stage;
• and
• purifying the aqueous source or derivative thereof, in a purification stage;
• in a post-extraction concentration stage, concentrating the purified lithium intermediate or a derivative thereof to yield a lithium concentrate;
• and
• in a monovalent impurity stage, removing monovalent impurities from the lithium concentrate or a derivative thereof to yield a purified lithium concentrate,
• wherein the post-extraction concentration stage and the monovalent impurity stage together comprise two post-extraction concentration stages with intermediate monovalent removal stages.