Lithium purification and conversion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12584192-B2
Application number	US-202218052647-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2022
Priority date	Jul 30, 2021
Publication date	Mar 24, 2026
Grant date	Mar 24, 2026

Abstract

Lithium recovery processes are described using vaporization and conversion techniques. A vaporizer 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, the method comprising:
extracting lithium from the brine source using an adsorption/desorption process during an extraction stage to form a lithium extract, wherein the extraction stage 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; concentrating the lithium extract during a concentration stage to yield a lithium concentrate stream, wherein the concentration stage includes using a membrane separation process with a plurality of membrane separations in series operated in counter-current format, wherein the membrane separation process includes a low-lithium concentration stream and high-lithium concentration stream flowing from membrane to membrane in opposite sequential orientations, wherein a dilute brine stream is obtained from the low-lithium concentration stream; recycling the dilute brine stream from the concentration stage to the eluent stream used during the extraction stage and/or to the brine source stream used during the extraction stage; heating the lithium concentrate stream via a heat exchanger positioned downstream from the concentration stage to yield a heated lithium concentrate stream; processing the heated lithium concentrate stream via a vaporizer positioned downstream from the heat exchanger, wherein a vaporized water stream and a lithium pre-conversion stream are obtained from a vaporization section of the vaporizer, the lithium pre-conversion stream comprising lithium salt, and wherein a precipitate stream precipitates in the vaporization section and settles in a precipitation section of the vaporizer, the precipitate stream comprising impurities; and channeling the vaporized water stream from the vaporizer to the heat exchanger positioned upstream from the vaporizer, wherein heat from the vaporized water stream is used via the heat exchanger to heat the lithium concentrate stream and yield the heated lithium concentrate stream that is then channeled to the vaporizer.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the lithium concentrate stream is obtained from the high-lithium concentration stream.

3 . The method of claim 1 , comprising treating impurities of the dilute brine stream using an impurity removal process.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising converting the lithium concentrate stream during a conversion stage, wherein lithium chloride from the lithium concentrate stream is converted to lithium carbonate and/or lithium hydroxide.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a condensed water stream is obtained from the heat exchanger, and wherein the method further comprises adding a portion of the condensed water stream to the lithium pre-conversion stream downstream from the vaporizer.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising converting lithium chloride in the lithium pre-conversion stream into lithium carbonate and/or lithium hydroxide during a conversion stage, wherein the portion of the condensed water stream is added to the lithium pre-conversion stream upstream from the conversion stage.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the precipitate stream comprises sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, or a combination thereof.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
channeling the precipitate stream from the precipitation section to a settling vessel; separating the precipitate stream in the settling vessel to obtain an impurity stream and a water or a brine; and channeling the water or the brine from the settling vessel to the precipitation section of the vaporizer.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the heated lithium concentrate stream is processed via the vaporizer using flash vaporization.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
converting, in a first conversion stage, lithium chloride in the lithium pre-conversion stream into lithium carbonate to yield a first conversion stream comprising the lithium carbonate, wherein the first conversion stage comprises:
mixing, via a first mixing vessel, the lithium pre-conversion stream with a sodium carbonate stream to yield a first reaction mixture;
separating, via a first rotary separator, the first reaction mixture into the first conversion stream and a conversion recycle stream;
recycling the conversion recycle stream to mix with the lithium concentrate stream upstream from the vaporizer;
processing a first portion of the first conversion stream via at least one additional membrane separation process to reduce a water content of the first portion of the first conversion stream;
drying the first portion of the first conversion stream having the reduced water content to obtain a lithium carbonate stream; and
channeling a second portion of the first conversion stream to a second conversion stage; and
converting, in the second conversion stage, the lithium carbonate in the second portion of the first conversion stream into lithium hydroxide to yield a lithium hydroxide stream, wherein the second conversion stage comprises:
mixing, via a second mixing vessel, the second portion of the first conversion stream with a calcium hydroxide stream to yield a second reaction mixture;
separating, via a second rotary separator, the second reaction mixture into a calcium carbonate stream and the lithium hydroxide stream;
filtering the calcium carbonate stream to yield a solid calcium carbonate product;
processing the lithium hydroxide stream via the at least one additional membrane separation process to reduce a water content of the lithium hydroxide stream; and
drying the lithium hydroxide stream having the reduced water content.

Assignees

• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

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

Classifications

• C22B3/42

  by ion-exchange extraction · CPC title

• Y02P10/20

  Recycling · CPC title

• C22B26/12 Primary

  Obtaining lithium · CPC title