Abstract
Brine from natural salt lakes (salt brine) is an important source of lithium; consequently the recovery of lithium from brine eluates prepared through Li+ adsorption-desorption is economically important. The present paper describes a study on the direct crystallization of Li2SO4·H2O from synthetic and real salt-brine eluates.Thermal evaporation of a sulfate-type synthetic eluate (1400mM Li+, 61mM Na+, 6.7mM K+, 16.7mM Mg2+, and 10.0mM Mn2+), to a degree of concentration (Dcon) in excess of 13, produced high purity (97%) Li2SO4·H2O crystals in 54% yield. The addition of ethanol to the eluate resulted in an increased yield of Li2SO4·H2O crystals, but these crystals were of lower purity due to the co-precipitation of other metal sulfates.Two types of eluate were prepared by the batchwise adsorption of Li+ from brine followed by desorption with 2M sulfuric acid. Evaporation of an eluate with a Li+ concentration of 1370mM to a Dcon of 8.6 at 323K produced high-purity (97%) Li2SO4·H2O crystals in 43% yield after the CaSO4·2H2O had been removed at a Dcon of around 3. The evaporation of the eluate to dryness at 323K followed by rinsing with water afforded Li2SO4·H2O crystals in 83% yield and in 84% purity. This simple evaporation method can be applied to lithium extraction from salt lakes in arid areas.
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