Lithium purification and conversion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023032153-A1
Application number	US-202217815593-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 28, 2022
Priority date	Jul 30, 2021
Publication date	Feb 2, 2023
Grant date	—

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, comprising:
extracting lithium from the brine source using an adsorption/desorption process to form a lithium extract; converting lithium from the lithium extract to lithium hydroxide using a conversion stage; and using a vaporizer having a vaporization section and a settling section to remove water from one or more lithium bearing streams between the adsorption/desorption process and the conversion stage.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the vaporizer yields a water stream, and further comprising routing the water stream to the adsorption/desorption process.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the vaporizer has a vaporization section, a precipitation section, and a heating element disposed within the vaporizer.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising removing solids from the vaporizer.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the solids precipitate in the precipitation section, and the solids include sodium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, calcium, or a mixture thereof.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing the lithium extract to the vaporizer to form a lithium concentrate and a water stream and converting lithium from the lithium concentrate to lithium hydroxide.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising routing the water stream to the adsorption/desorption process.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein converting lithium from the lithium concentrate to lithium hydroxide comprises converting lithium in the lithium concentrate to lithium carbonate and converting the lithium carbonate to lithium hydroxide.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising routing a stream from the conversion stage to the vaporizer.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the stream routed from the conversion stage to the vaporizer is an aqueous stream separated from converted lithium.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the vaporizer yields a water stream, and further comprising routing the water stream to the adsorption/desorption process.

12 . A method of recovering lithium from a brine source, comprising:
withdrawing lithium from the brine source to a lithium-selective medium in an ion withdrawal stage; using an eluent to remove lithium from the lithium-selective medium to form a lithium extract; converting lithium from the lithium extract to lithium hydroxide in a conversion stage; using a vaporizer having a vaporization section and a settling section to remove water from one or more lithium bearing streams between the ion withdrawal stage and the conversion stage; and routing the water removed by the vaporizer to the eluent.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the vaporizer has a vaporization section and a precipitation section, and further comprising removing solids from the vaporizer.

14 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising providing the lithium extract to the vaporizer to form a lithium concentrate and converting lithium from the lithium concentrate to lithium hydroxide.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein converting lithium from the lithium concentrate to lithium hydroxide comprises converting lithium in the lithium concentrate to lithium carbonate and converting the lithium carbonate to lithium hydroxide.

16 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising routing a stream from the conversion stage to the vaporizer.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the conversion stage precipitates lithium and separates the precipitated lithium from a recycle stream that is recycled from the conversion stage to the vaporizer.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the precipitated lithium is lithium carbonate and the lithium carbonate is converted to lithium hydroxide.

19 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising routing a conversion recycle stream from the conversion stage to the vaporizer, and vaporizing water in the vaporizer to form the eluent.

20 . A method of recovering lithium from a brine source, comprising:
withdrawing lithium from the brine source to a lithium-selective medium using an ion withdrawal stage; using an eluent to remove lithium from the lithium-selective medium to form a lithium extract; converting lithium from the lithium extract to lithium hydroxide using a conversion stage; using a vaporizer having a vaporization section and a settling section to remove water from one or more lithium bearing streams between the ion withdrawal stage and the conversion stage; and routing the water removed by the vaporizer to the ion withdrawal stage.

21 . The method of claim 20 , wherein the vaporizer is used to remove water from the lithium extract to form a lithium concentrate, or the vaporizer is used to remove water from a conversion stream, or the vaporizer is used to remove water from a conversion recycle stream.

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

• C22B26/12 Primary

  Obtaining lithium · CPC title

• Y02P10/20

  Recycling · CPC title