OBTAINING HIGH QUALITY LITHIUM CARBONATE FROM NATURAL LITHIUM-CONTAINING BRINES

Abstract

The aim of this work is to develop a new effective technology for producing high-quality lithium carbonate from natural lithium-containing brines. Freshly deposited aluminum hydroxide was used to separate lithium from the trace amounts of sodium and calcium. It was found that the completeness of lithium extraction from brines purified from magnesium depends on the sorbent dosage, phase contact time, mineralization, pH, and brine temperature. To extract lithium from brines with a mineralization of less than 100 g/dm3, it is necessary to introduce 4 mol of aluminum hydroxide per 1 mol of lithium in the brine. For brines with a mineralization greater than 200 g/dm3, the consumption of the sorbent providing the extraction of lithium more than 96% is 2.5 mol of aluminum hydroxide. Desorption of lithium chloride from lithium-aluminum concentrate is carried out by processing 4-5 canopies of concentrate in a Soxlet type apparatus with the same volume of distilled water. The resulting concentrated solution of lithium chloride is purified from calcium impurities in contact with a saturated solution of lithium carbonate. From a heated aqueous solution of lithium chloride purified from calcium impurities, lithium carbonate is precipitated by dosing a stoichiometric amount of a saturated solution of sodium carbonate into it. The precipitate of lithium carbonate is separated from the mother solution, washed with three portions of a saturated solution of lithium carbonate at a ratio of solid to liquid by weight equal to one to five, in order of decreasing the concentration of sodium in each portion of the wash water. The dried product contains at least 99.6% Li2CO3.