Lithium Recovery from Brines Including Seawater, Salt Lake Brine, Underground Water and Geothermal Water

Abstract

Demand to lithium rising swiftly as increasing due to its diverse applications such as rechargeable batteries, light aircraft alloys, air purification, medicine and nuclear fusion. Lithium demand is expected to triple by 2025 through the use of batteries, particularly electric vehicles. The lithium market is expected to grow from 184,000 TPA of lithium carbonate to 534,000 TPA by 2025. To ensure the growing consumption of lithium, it is necessary to increase the production of lithium from different resources. Natural lithium resources mainly associate within granite peg-matite type deposit (spodumene and petalite ores), salt lake brines, seawater and geothermal water. Among them, the reserves of lithium resource in salt lake brine, seawater and geothermal water are in 70–80% of the total, which are excellent raw materials for lithium extraction. Compared with the minerals, the extraction of lithium from water resources is promising because this aqueous lithium recovery is more abundant, more environmentally friendly and cost-effective.