Forward Osmosis to Concentrate Lithium from Brine: The Effect of Operating Conditions (pH and Temperature)

Abstract

The development of battery technology is the driving force behind the increasing demand for lithium, which has resulted in a decreased supply of lithium in the market and continues to be a challenge for the industry. In response to these conditions, the development of lithium recovery technology continues, and there is a search for sources of lithium that are easier to recover. One source of lithium that has the potential to be processed is geothermal brine using forward osmosis technology. The aim of this study was to determine the best operating conditions for forward osmosis as a substitute for conventional evaporation methods. The parameters to be optimized included pH and operating temperature. The flow rate in the forward osmosis process was controlled by two litres per hour (LPH), while the concentration of the draw solution was 6M. The operating temperature variations used were 40  C, 35  C, and 30  C, while the pH variations used were 7, 6, and 5. The best results were achieved at a pH of 5 with a temperature of 40  C. Apart from these operating conditions, the activity model (the Pitzer equation) showed superior results compared to the simple model (the Van't Hoff equation), explaining the forward osmosis phenomenon.

Lithium Separation from Geothermal Brine to Develop Critical Energy Resources Using High-Pressure Nanofiltration Technology: Characterization and Optimization

“…Other methods include membrane technology, such as membrane distillation (MD) technology [ 16 ] and electrodialysis [ 17 ]. The membrane distillation method involves a thermal membrane separation process whereby volatile compounds are transferred from a hot aqueous solution (usually saline water) through a microporous hydrophobic membrane due to the driving force between partial pressure caused by the temperature difference from both sides of the membrane [ 18 ].…”

“…Electrodialysis is also an alternative to lithium extraction structured within an electrodialysis stack employed with direct current, which involves the ion transfer through a membrane with electric potential charge difference as the driving force [ 17 ]. The distillation membrane mostly serves to concentrate the metal content in the solution [ 16 ], while electrodialysis still has difficulties in separating magnesium and lithium ions with almost the same hydration radii [ 21 ]. So, nanofiltration is an alternative technology to obtain high concentrations of lithium because, theoretically, only monovalent ions can pass through the membrane [ 21 ].…”

Synthesis of Titanium Ion Sieves and Its Application for Lithium Recovery from Artificial Indonesian Geothermal Brine

“…For comparison, the United States had installed geothermal power plants of about 3.687 MW, 1.868 MW in the Philippines, 1.347 MW in Turkey, 1.005 MW in New Zealand, and some countries under 1 GW [1]. According to several studies [2][3][4][5][6][7], it turns out that the by-product of utilizing geothermal energy in the form of brine (salt solution) contains lithium which is interesting to be processed as a raw material in various industries, especially the battery industry.…”

Can Cryoprotectant’s modification in Spermatozoa Cryopreservation be an Alternative to Improve Embryo Quality? A Review

“…Temperature changes on the process of osmosis results in an increase in water flux. This situation relates to the effect of temperature on density and viscosity (Sutijan et al, 2022).…”