Removal of impurities from lithium eluate
AssigneeLilac Solutions, Inc.
InventorsDavid Henry SNYDACKER, Sophia Patricia MOCK, Christopher John KOMLOS, Nicolás Andrés GROSSO GIORDANO, Amos INDRANADA, Garrett LAU
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to the extraction of lithium from liquid resources such as natural and synthetic brines, leachate solutions from clays and minerals, and recycled products. Herein are systems and processes for extracting lithium using ion exchange materials, where transition metal impurities may be removed from the synthetic lithium solution. In some embodiments, the transition metal species are reformulated to form ion exchange materials to be used in the systems and processes described herein.
Claims210
A system for producing a synthetic lithium solution and removing transition metal species from said synthetic lithium solution, comprising:
- a. a first subsystem configured to 1) first contact an ion exchange material to a liquid resource, wherein said ion exchange material absorbs lithium ions from said liquid resource while releasing protons, and subsequently 2) contact the ion exchange material to an acidic solution, wherein said ion exchange material releases lithium into said acidic solution while absorbing protons, producing a synthetic lithium solution;
- and
- b. a second subsystem configured to remove transition metal species from said synthetic lithium solution.
A process of producing an impurities-derived ion exchange material, the process comprising:
- a. contacting an ion exchange material to a liquid resource, wherein said ion exchange material absorbs lithium ions from said liquid resource while releasing protons;
- b. contacting the ion exchange material to an acidic solution, wherein said ion exchange material releases lithium into said acidic solution while absorbing protons, producing a synthetic lithium solution, and wherein said synthetic lithium solution comprises at least one transition metal species;
- c. removing at least one of said transition metal species from said synthetic lithium solution;
- and
- d. manufacturing the impurities-derived ion exchange material from said transition metal species.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.