Performance of a double-slope solar still for the concentration of lithium rich brines with concomitant fresh water recovery

Baspineiro, Celso Fernando; Franco, Judith; Flexer, Victoria

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148192

Cited by 27 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Lithium mining facilities from brines occupy large expanses, because of the need to build solar evaporation ponds. For example, the solar evaporation ponds of two local facilities in northern Argentina occupy respectively 5.5 and 12 km 2 (for total production capacities of 17,500 and 25,000 tons of lithium carbonate, i.e., close to the numbers of the projected plants used here) . In addition, both the area occupied by the chemical processing plant and the mining camp should also be taken into account.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the solar evaporation ponds of two local facilities in northern Argentina occupy respectively 5.5 and 12 km 2 (for total production capacities of 17,500 and 25,000 tons of lithium carbonate, i.e., close to the numbers of the projected plants used here). 33 In addition, both the area occupied by the chemical processing plant and the mining camp should also be taken into account. This comparison shows that additions of solar plants such as calculated here will only imply a change in the total occupied surface area in the order of 1−9%.…”

Section: Solar Plant For Electricmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, we are referring here to a hydrometallurgical process, where only aqueous streams need to be heated at temperatures below boiling point (∼100 °C), that is, not hard rock ores that need to be processed at temperatures of several hundred degrees centigrade . Therefore, lithium deposits, both those currently under active exploitation and particularly those under development, are perfect locations for solar energy harnessing. , In this context, the possibility of providing the lithium mining industry with at least some energy autonomy from the electric/gas grid and/or the permanent transportation of fossil fuels is a strong driving force for the large-scale implementation of renewable energy installations, in addition, of course, to environmental sustainability. No CSP plants are currently in operation, nor under development in Argentina.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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CO₂ Emission Reduction by Integrating Concentrating Solar Power into Lithium Mining

Dellicompagni¹,

Franco²,

Flexer³

2021

Energy Fuels

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An assessment of the energy requirements in the lithium brine mining and processing industry indicated that all active facilities currently satisfy their energy needs from fossil fuels. A more detailed analysis of two case studies allowed us to identify specific thermal and electrical energy requirements. Annual horizontal global solar irradiation values higher than 2000 kWh/m2 are registered at most lithium brine deposits. These values make concentrating solar power (CSP) an interesting technology to supply mining activities with alternatively thermal or electrical energy, both from technological and economical perspectives. The temperature and heat consumption of the processes were considered as reference parameters to determine the thermal capacity of solar power plants. These plants were designed using the system advisor model. Furthermore, CO2 mitigation was analyzed. A parabolic trough plant for power electric generation with a thermal storage system was found to be a more suitable option to substantially diversify the energy matrix and reduce greenhouse emissions of the lithium mining industry, if compared with using CSP for thermal processes in the absence of energy storage. Simulation results showed similarities in the emission reduction potential when parabolic trough and linear Fresnel technologies without thermal storage were compared: 154.3 and 161.6 gCO2/kgLCE, respectively. On an annual basis, these technologies cover over 20% of the thermal energy matrix. An electric plant designed based on a parabolic trough system coupled to thermal energy storage can achieve a matrix penetration of over 51% and an annual CO2 mitigation of 403.3 gCO2/kgLCE.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Solar Plant For Electricmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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CO₂ Emission Reduction by Integrating Concentrating Solar Power into Lithium Mining

Dellicompagni¹,

Franco²,

Flexer³

2021

Energy Fuels

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“…A classical solar still at Salar de Olaroz achieved a lower performance, with a water recovery rate of 0.083 kg m −2 h −1 (ref. 111 ). Another approach for water recovery used graphite-promoted cyclopentane hydrate formation 112 .…”

Section: Freshwater Usagementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impact of direct lithium extraction from brines

Vera

Torres

Galli

et al. 2023

Nat Rev Earth Environ

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206

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Evaporitic technology for lithium mining from brines has been questioned for its intensive water use, protracted duration and exclusive application to continental brines. In this Review, we analyse the environmental impacts of evaporitic and alternative technologies, collectively known as direct lithium extraction (DLE), for lithium mining, focusing on requirements for fresh water, chemicals, energy consumption and waste generation, including spent brines. DLE technologies aim to tackle the environmental and techno-economic shortcomings of current practice by avoiding brine evaporation. A selection of DLE technologies has achieved Li + recovery above 95%, Li + /Mg 2+ separation above 100, and zero chemical approaches. Conversely, only 30% of DLE test experiments were performed on real brines, and thus the effect of multivalent ions or large Na + /Li + concentration differences on performance indicators is often not evaluated. Some DLE technologies involve brine pH changes or brine heating up to 80 o C for improved Li + recovery, which require energy, fresh water and chemicals that must be considered during environmental impact assessments. Future research should focus on performing tests on real brines and achieving competitiveness in several performance indicators simultaneously. The environmental impact of DLE should be assessed from brine pumping to the production of the pure solid lithium product. Sections Lithium mining from continental brinesAs of 2022, worldwide, there are eight full-scale active facilities that produce lithium compounds from continental brines 9 and more are likely to become active before 2030 (Fig. 1a). The evaporitic technology (Fig. 1b) is currently in use at seven of those facilities 18,19 . Brines are Key points• Fresh water consumption of direct lithium extraction (DLE) needs to be urgently quantified. Many DLE technologies might require larger freshwater volumes than current evaporative practices, compromising their applicability in arid locations.• Environmental monitoring guidelines have been drafted with evaporitic technology in mind, but they should also be applied to the implementation of any DLE technology, which still consumes brine, uses fresh water and produces residues, the latter two hopefully at considerably lower volumes.Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author selfarchiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

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“…For lithium recovery from its aqueous resources, generally as LiCl or LiCO 3 salt [9], several methods were proposed, including solar evaporation [10], adsorption [11][12][13][14][15], complexation [16][17][18][19], precipitation [20,21], solvent extraction [22,23] and membrane process [24][25][26][27][28]. Among these proposed techniques and despite the time consumption and environmental effects of solar evaporation, this remains the most used method for actual lithium salt production [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithium-Sodium Separation by a Lithium Composite Membrane Used in Electrodialysis Process: Concept Validation

et al. 2022

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The recent expansion of global Lithium Ion Battery (LIBs) production has generated a significant stress on the lithium demand. One of the means to produce this element is its extraction from different aqueous sources (salars, geothermal water etc.). However, the presence of other mono- and divalent cations makes this extraction relatively complex. Herein, we propose lithium-sodium separation by an electrodialysis (ED) process using a Lithium Composite Membrane (LCM), whose effectiveness was previously demonstrated by a Diffusion Dialysis process (previous work). LCM performances in terms of lithium Recovery Ratio (RR(Li+)) and Selectivity (S(Li/Na)) were investigated using different Li+/Na+ reconstituted solutions and two ED cells: a two-compartment cell was chosen for its simplicity, and a four-compartment one was selected for its potential to isolate the redox reactions at the electrodes. We demonstrated that the four-compartment cell use was advantageous since it provided membrane protection from protons and gases generated by the electrodes but that membrane selectivity was negatively affected. The impact of the applied current density and the concentration ratio of Na+ and Li+ in the feed compartment ([Na+]F/[Li+]F) were tested using the four-compartment cell. We showed that increasing the current density led to an improvement of RR(Li+) but to a reduction in the LCM selectivity towards Li+. Increasing the [Na+]F/[Li+]F ratios to 10 had a positive effect on the membrane performance. However, for high values of this ratio, both RR(Li+) and S(Li/Na) decreased. The optimal results were obtained at [Na+]F/[Li+]F near 10, where we succeeded in extracting more than 10% of the initial Li+ concentration with a selectivity value around 112 after 4 h of ED experiment at 0.5 mA·cm−2. Thus, we can objectively estimate that the concept of this selective extraction of Li+ from a mixture even when concentrated in Na+ using an ED process was validated.

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Performance of a double-slope solar still for the concentration of lithium rich brines with concomitant fresh water recovery

Cited by 27 publications

References 37 publications

CO₂ Emission Reduction by Integrating Concentrating Solar Power into Lithium Mining

CO₂ Emission Reduction by Integrating Concentrating Solar Power into Lithium Mining

Environmental impact of direct lithium extraction from brines

Lithium-Sodium Separation by a Lithium Composite Membrane Used in Electrodialysis Process: Concept Validation

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Performance of a double-slope solar still for the concentration of lithium rich brines with concomitant fresh water recovery

Cited by 27 publications

References 37 publications

CO2 Emission Reduction by Integrating Concentrating Solar Power into Lithium Mining

CO2 Emission Reduction by Integrating Concentrating Solar Power into Lithium Mining

Environmental impact of direct lithium extraction from brines

Lithium-Sodium Separation by a Lithium Composite Membrane Used in Electrodialysis Process: Concept Validation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

CO₂ Emission Reduction by Integrating Concentrating Solar Power into Lithium Mining

CO₂ Emission Reduction by Integrating Concentrating Solar Power into Lithium Mining