Preparation method for lithium phosphate, preparation method for lithium hydroxide, and preparation method for lithium carbonate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11655150-B2
Application number	US-201816956836-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2018
Priority date	Dec 22, 2017
Publication date	May 23, 2023
Grant date	May 23, 2023

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for producing lithium phosphate, comprising: passing a lithium-containing solution through an aluminum-based adsorbent to adsorb lithium on the aluminum-based adsorbent, passing the distilled water or an aqueous solution having a lower lithium concentration than the lithium-containing solution through the aluminum-based adsorbent on which the lithium is adsorbed to obtain a lithium-containing desorption solution, and putting a phosphorous supplying material in the lithium-containing desorption solution to obtain lithium phosphate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for producing lithium phosphate, comprising:
passing a lithium-containing solution through an aluminum-based adsorbent to adsorb lithium on the aluminum-based adsorbent;
passing distilled water or an aqueous solution having a lower lithium concentration than the lithium-containing solution through the aluminum-based adsorbent on which the lithium is adsorbed to obtain a lithium-containing desorption solution;
putting a phosphorous supplying material in the lithium-containing desorption solution to obtain lithium phosphate;
removing impurities in the lithium-containing desorption solution before the step of putting a phosphorous supplying material in the lithium-containing desorption solution to obtain lithium phosphate,
wherein the concentration of lithium comprised in the lithium-containing desorption solution is in the range of 0.8 g/L to 1.5 g/L.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the step of removing impurities in the lithium-containing desorption solution comprises
separating the impurities physically by passing the lithium-containing desorption solution through a filtration membrane having different permeability of monovalent ions and divalent ions;
putting a precipitant in the lithium-containing desorption solution to remove impurities; or
removing impurities by electrodialysis method using a monovalent cation selective permeable membrane.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the impurities to be removed in the step of removing impurities are divalent cations.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein
the divalent cation comprises at least one of calcium, magnesium and strontium.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein
the precipitant put in the step of removing impurities is at least one of sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ), calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH) 2 ), sodium sulfate (Na 2 SO 4 ), ammonium hydroxide (NH 4 OH), ammonium carbonate ((NH 4 ) 2 CO 3 ), ammonium sulfate ((NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 ) and potassium hydroxide (KOH).

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein
the precipitant put in the step of removing impurities is sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ).

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein
the content of the precipitant put in the step of removing impurities is in the range of 1 equivalent to 2 equivalents on the basis of the equivalent of the impurity ions.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
using electrodialyser to concentrate the lithium-containing desorption solution; or
concentrating the lithium-containing desorption solution using a reverse osmosis method; before the step of putting a phosphorous supplying material in the lithium-containing desorption solution to obtain lithium phosphate.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein
the electrodialyser comprises a cathode cell comprising a cathode separation membrane, an anion selective-type permeable membrane which is selectively permeable to anions, a cation selective-type permeable membrane which is selectively permeable to cations, and an anode cell comprising an anode separation membrane are disposed in a sequential order.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein
the concentration of lithium which is concentrated is 1 g/L to 15 g/L.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein
in the step of putting a phosphorous supplying material in the lithium-containing desorption solution to obtain lithium phosphate;
a pH adjusting agent is added together with the phosphorus supplying material.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the concentration of lithium in the lithium-containing solution is 0.1 g/L to 2.0 g/L.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the aluminum-based adsorbent comprises an adsorbent powder and a binder.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the aluminum-based adsorbent comprises aluminum hydroxide.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the step of obtaining the lithium-containing desorption solution is
performed by passing the distilled water or an aqueous solution having a lower lithium concentration than the lithium-containing solution through a content of 0.5 to 10 times on the basis of the volume of the aluminum-based adsorbent on which the lithium is adsorbed.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein
in the step of obtaining the lithium-containing desorption solution,
the lithium-containing desorption solution obtained by passing the distilled water or an aqueous solution having a lower lithium concentration than the lithium-containing solution through a content of 0.5 to 3 times on the basis of the volume of the aluminum-based adsorbent on which the lithium is adsorbed is used in subsequent process,
and the desorption solution used more than 3 times is reused for next desorption of the lithium adsorbent.

17. The method of claim 8 , wherein
the step of using electrodialyser to concentrate the lithium-containing desorption solution; is performed 2 times or more.

18. A method for producing lithium hydroxide, comprising:
passing a lithium-containing solution through an aluminum-based adsorbent to adsorb lithium on the aluminum-based adsorbent;
passing distilled water or an aqueous solution having a lower lithium concentration than the lithium-containing solution through the aluminum-based adsorbent on which the lithium is adsorbed to obtain a lithium-containing desorption solution; and
injecting the lithium-containing desorption solution into a bipolar electrodialyser to obtain an aqueous solution of lithium hydroxide,
wherein the concentration of lithium comprised in the lithium-containing desorption solution is in the range of 0.8 g/L to 1.5 g/L.

19. A method for producing lithium carbonate, comprising:
passing a lithium-containing solution through an aluminum-based adsorbent to adsorb lithium on the aluminum-based adsorbent;
passing distilled water or an aqueous solution having a lower lithium concentration than the lithium-containing solution through the aluminum-based adsorbent on which the lithium is adsorbed to obtain a lithium-containing desorption solution;
injecting the lithium-containing desorption solution into a bipolar electrodialyser to obtain an aqueous solution of lithium hydroxide; and
carbonating the obtained aqueous solution of lithium hydroxide to obtain lithium carbonate,
wherein the concentration of lithium comprised in the lithium-containing desorption solution is in the range of 0.8 g/L to 1.5 g/L.

20. A method for producing lithium carbonate, comprising:
passing a lithium-containing solution through an aluminum-based adsorbent to adsorb lithium on the aluminum-based adsorbent;
passing distilled water or an aqueous solution having a lower lithium concentration than the lithium-containing solution through the aluminum-based adsorbent on which the lithium is adsorbed to obtain a lithium-containing desorption solution; and
carbonating the desorption solution to obtain lithium carbonate,
wherein the concentration of lithium comprised in the lithium-containing desorption solution is in the range of 0.8 g/L to 1.5 g/L.

Assignees

• Posco
• Res Inst Ind Science & Tech
• Posco Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Hyun Woo
• Park Woonkyoung
• Yang Heok
• Park Kwang Seok
• Kuk Seung Taek
• Kim Ki Young
• Lee Sang Gil
• Jung Woo Chul
• Han Gi-Chun
• Kim Juyoung
• Ko Young-Seon
• Wi Jin Yeop

Classifications

• B01D61/422

  Electrodialysis · CPC title

• B01J20/28016

  Particle form · CPC title

• B01D15/00

  Separating processes involving the treatment of liquids with solid sorbents; Apparatus therefor · CPC title

• B01J20/2803

  Sorbents comprising a binder, e.g. for forming aggregated, agglomerated or granulated products · CPC title

• B01J20/30

  Processes for preparing, regenerating, or reactivating · CPC title