Lithium purification and conversion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12351471-B2
Application number	US-202418673417-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2024
Priority date	Jul 30, 2021
Publication date	Jul 8, 2025
Grant date	Jul 8, 2025

Abstract

Lithium recovery processes are described using concentration and conversion techniques. A vaporizer or membrane can be used to concentrate lithium and precipitate impurities. A conversion process can be used to replace anions in lithium bearing streams by adding a second anion and precipitating lithium in a salt with the second anion. Rotary separation can be used to separate the precipitated lithium salt.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of recovering lithium from a brine source, comprising:
extracting lithium from the brine source using an ion withdrawal process to form a lithium extract;
concentrating a stream derived from the lithium extract using a counter-flow reverse osmosis operation, to yield a lithium concentrate and a dilute brine stream;
using a reverse osmosis operation to separate the dilute brine stream into two streams including a permeate stream; and
recycling the permeate stream,
wherein the counter-flow reverse osmosis operation includes flowing the stream derived from the lithium extract into a plurality of reactors, each containing a semi-permeable membrane separating the reactor into a first volume and a second volume,
wherein the stream derived from the lithium extract flows as a non-permeating stream sequentially into the first volume of each reactor and a permeating stream flows sequentially into the second volume of each reactor counter-current to the non-permeating stream, and
wherein the non-permeating stream exiting the plurality of reactors yields the lithium concentrate and the permeating stream exiting the plurality of reactors yields the dilute brine stream.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein concentrating the stream derived from the lithium extract includes pressurizing the lithium extract at a target pressure below 2000 psi.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising recycling a portion of the non-permeating stream at the exit of the plurality of reactors into the permeating stream.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising depressurizing the non-permeating stream before recycling it into the permeating stream.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein extracting lithium from the brine source includes contacting a brine source stream with a lithium selective medium to load the medium with lithium and contacting an eluent stream with the lithium-loaded medium to form the lithium extract and wherein the permeate stream is recycled into the eluent stream.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein extracting lithium from the brine source includes contacting a brine source stream with a lithium selective medium to load the medium with lithium and contacting an eluent stream with the lithium-loaded medium to form the lithium extract and wherein the brine source stream yields a lithium depleted brine stream after having contacting the lithium selective medium, and using at least a membrane separation operation or thermal vaporizer to yield a reject stream and a fresh water stream, wherein the fresh water stream is recycled.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion withdrawal process is a continuous counter-current adsorption desorption process.

Assignees

• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

• Perroni Dominic Vincent
• Sams Gary W
• Binet Florence
• Shampine Rod William

Classifications

• B01D2315/24

  Counter-current operation · CPC title

• C02F2301/046

  Recirculation with an external loop · CPC title

• C02F2101/10

  Inorganic compounds · CPC title

• B01D2311/2512

  to feed side · CPC title

• B01D2317/022

  Reject series · CPC title