Recent advances on electrodialysis for the recovery of lithium from primary and secondary resources

Abstract

The small world of lithium is booming due to the emergence of electric vehicles. The development of sustainable and economic processes to recover lithium from primary and secondary resources is essential to face up the expected global demand of lithium. Electrodialysis seems to be an interesting alternative among the different technologies available to produce lithium from brines, ores and spent lithium-ion batteries via hydrometallurgical route. However, electrodialysis is presently mainly used at industrial scale in water treatment. This paper gives an overview of recent advances in the development of electrodialysis technology, which could be an asset for the next generations of processes involved in lithium production.