A process and system for heating a lithium containing material

A process for heating a lithium containing material with reduced dust generation comprising:

• (a) directing a lithium containing material to form a bed of the lithium containing material in a heating vessel;
• (b) heating the bed of lithium containing material in the heating vessel with a controllable source of microwave energy directed toward the lithium containing material to cause a solid phase transformation in said lithium containing material;
• (c) discharging said lithium containing material from the heating vessel;
• and
• (d) extracting gas and dust from the heating vessel into a dust extraction system,
• wherein the dust extraction system enables recycling of dust to the heating vessel, an equilibrium dust recycle being less than 2% of the weight of lithium containing material feed directed to the heating vessel;
• and
• wherein gas and dust extracted from the heating vessel is cooled in a cooler, heat being recovered from the cooler for heating the lithium containing material feed directed to the heating vessel.

A process for heating of a lithium containing material comprising:

• (a) directing a lithium containing material to form a bed in a rotary gas fired kiln;
• (b) heating the bed of lithium containing material in the rotary gas fired kiln to cause a solid phase transformation in the lithium containing material while extracting a gas from the heating vessel in a dust separation system coupled to the first heating vessel;
• (c) heating lithium containing dust recovered in the dust separation system from the gas extracted from the rotary gas fired kiln with a controllable source of microwave energy directed toward the lithium containing dust in a second heating vessel,
• wherein heat treated dust from the second heating vessel is directed to a cooler and downward processing steps including leaching for recovery of lithium.