Carbon dioxide utilization in lithium carbonate precipitation: A short review

Abstract

The market for lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) is growing rapidly, the demand for lithium (Li) in the form of lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃), which is the most common lithium mineralization form, is therefore also increasing significantly. Li is conventionally extracted as Li₂CO₃ using sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃) to precipitate Li ions in an aqueous Li solution. However, Na₂CO₃ can also be replaced by CO₂, which highlights the potential of using CO₂ as a sustainable and economically viable alternative. This review focuses on technologies that utilize CO₂ for Li₂CO₂ precipitation. First, the use of CO₂ gas and Na₂CO₃ as carbonate sources are compared, and the need to consider important operating conditions with CO₂ bubbling are then presented. Attempts made to increase the specific surface area of the reaction surface to enhance the utilization of CO₂ gas and to produce micro-sized Li₂CO₃ powders are then reported, and the limitations associated with CO₂ gas utilization are discussed. Although CO₂ precipitation has limitations in terms of efficiency, scalability, and the fine-tuning of reaction conditions, this review shows that if CO₂ precipitation technology is further developed, its use could be key to extracting and recycling next-generation Li.