Multipass Nanofiltration for Lithium Separation with High Selectivity and Recovery

Nanofiltration (NF) is a promising and sustainable process to extract Li⁺ from brine lakes with high Mg²⁺/Li⁺ mass ratios. However, a trade-off between Li/Mg selectivity and Li recovery exists at the process scale, and the Li/Mg selectivity of commercially and lab-made NF membranes in a single-pass NF process is insufficient to achieve the industrially required Li purity. To overcome this challenge, we propose a multipass NF process with brine recirculation to achieve high selectivity without sacrificing Li recovery. We experimentally demonstrate that Li/Mg selectivity of a three-pass NF process with a commercial NF membrane can exceed 1000, despite the compromised Li recovery as a result of co-existing cations. Our theoretical analysis further predicts that a four-pass NF process with brine recirculation can simultaneously achieve an ultrahigh Li/Mg selectivity of over 4500 and a Li recovery of over 95%. This proposed process could potentially facilitate efficient NF-based solute–solute separations of all kinds and contribute to the development of novel membrane-based separation technologies.