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US 12,601,076 B2Granted
Impurity control in lithium recovery
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorsDominic Vincent Perroni, Florence Binet, Prasanna Nirgudkar, Rod William Shampine
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Abstract
Described herein are methods of recovering lithium from aqueous sources. The methods include extracting lithium from an aqueous lithium source using an extraction stage to yield a lithium intermediate; routing the lithium intermediate to a concentration stage to yield a lithium concentrate; and adjusting parameters of the ion withdrawal extraction stage to target a ratio of lithium ions to impurity ions in the lithium intermediate.
Claims20
A method of recovering lithium from an aqueous lithium source, comprising:
- extracting lithium from an aqueous lithium source using an extraction stage to yield a lithium intermediate;
- routing the lithium intermediate through an impurity removal stage in response to a ratio of lithium ions to impurity ions in the lithium intermediate reaching a predefined threshold value, wherein the impurity removal stage yields a purified lithium intermediate;
- determining at least one economic factor related to lithium recovery;
- bypassing at least a portion of the lithium intermediate around the impurity removal stage in response to the at least one economic factor;
- routing at least one of the purified lithium intermediate or the portion of the lithium intermediate that is bypassed around the impurity removal stage to a concentration stage to yield a lithium concentrate;
- and
- adjusting parameters of the extraction stage to control the ratio of lithium ions to impurity ions in the lithium intermediate.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.