Lithium recovery from waste glass using acid leaching or base leaching

Abstract

Methods of recovering lithium from glass include crushing the glass to produce glass particles and contacting the glass particles with an aqueous leaching solution at a leaching temperature greater than ambient temperature and less than the boiling temperature of the aqueous leaching solution to produce a leachate slurry. The glass particles include lithium. The aqueous leaching solution includes sulfuric acid in water or sodium hydroxide in water. Contacting the glass particles with the aqueous leaching solution leaches greater than or equal to about 50% of the lithium out of the glass particles. The methods further comprise separating the leachate slurry to produce a solid residue and a leachate, the leachate comprising the lithium leached from the glass particles. The method further include recovering the lithium from the leachate through precipitation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.