Gold Prize Patent of Jiuwu Hi-tech Solves the Problem of Lithium Extraction of Salt Lake

Energy crisis and environmental crisis are two major problems faced by human society. Reducing fossil energy consumption and increasing the development and utilization of new energy are effective ways to solve these two crises.

Our government has formulated a series of new energy policies to promote industrial upgrading and ensure national energy security, and power energy storage technology is the key link of the new energy strategy. In industry, energy storage technology, as an important supporting technology to integrate transportation and energy in the future, will show value in more application scenarios, and it will also become an essential part of the energy field in China. As the key application of electric energy storage technology, automotive power lithium battery has made remarkable technological progress and industrial achievements in recent years. Lithium is an indispensable basic material for vehicle power lithium batteries. Most of the basic lithium salts for batteries in China are extracted from imported lithium ores. However, China is actually a country rich in lithium resources, with proven reserves of up to 5.4 million tons, but about 85% of lithium is found in Salt Lake Brines distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In our country, the magnesium-lithium ratio of salt lake brine is generally too high, the extraction is difficult and the production cost is high. The technical bottleneck of lithium extraction from salt lake brine with high magnesium-lithium ratio has long restricted the development of lithium resource industry in our country.

New Energy Vehicles

The invention patent of Jiangsu Jiuwu Hi-tech Co., LTD, "A process and device for extracting battery-grade lithium from brine" is useful to solve the problem of extracting lithium from brine of salt lake with high Mg-Li ratio. The invention has just won the Gold Prize of "Patent Award for Membrane Industry" awarded by China Membrane Industry Association, and has been unanimously recognized by relevant experts.

Patent Gold Award of Jiuwu Hi-tech

The patented technology is to add adsorbent to the brine to absorb lithium ion, and use ceramic membrane filter to separate the adsorbent from the brine. The separated adsorbent is washed and desorbed to transfer lithium ion to the desorption solution. The impurity magnesium ion in the desorption solution is removed by nanofiltration membrane system and ion exchange resin tower. The purified desorption solution is concentrated by reverse osmosis membrane and then concentrated by DTRO membrane or electrodialysis. After evaporation, the concentrate is precipitated by adding refiner to precipitate impurity ions in the process of concentration. The impurity precipitation is separated and removed by ceramic membrane filter. The filtrate is reacted with soda solution to form lithium carbonate. Finally, the lithium carbonate product of battery grade can be obtained by centrifugal drying after washing the lithium carbonate with ceramic membrane. The invention solves the problems of long time-consuming, low concentration of lithium chloride, low yield, high consumption of chemical reagents and low purity of products in the traditional process of extracting lithium from brine, and provides an ideal technical route for large-scale low-cost production of high-quality lithium carbonate with high magnesium-lithium ratio to Salt Lake brine.

This technology uses the high performance lithium adsorbent developed by Jiangsu Jiuwu Hi-tech Co., Ltd. It is suitable for chloride salt lakes with various Mg/Li ratios. Compared with traditional adsorption processes, it can save 50% of adsorbents and project construction investment. The technology can also be used to extract lithium from raw halogen, and the lithium extraction capacity can be quickly obtained without restriction of salt field construction before the lithium extraction section is mentioned to precipitate sodium and potassium. The application of this patent will make outstanding contribution to the development of new energy industry in China.

Technological Process

Jiangsu Jiuwu Hi-tech Co., Ltd has long been committed to the development and application of the overall solution for lithium extraction from salt lakes. It has high-performance lithium adsorbent preparation technology and a variety of lithium extraction process kits in salt lakes. It has applied for eight patents and has established a 10,000-ton/year lithium magnesium-lithium carbonate separation industrialization project. The project's lithium carbonate products can be used in the production of about 250,000 new energy vehicles, and fuel vehicles can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 800,000 tons per year over the same period.

Membrane Integration Equipment

I have long aspired to reach for the clouds and my heart longs for the sky. Jiangsu Jiuwu Hi-tech Co., Ltd has accumulated abundant experience in the application of lithium extraction technology  of salt lakes, and has realized many technological innovations in the field of lithium extraction of salt lakes. It is one of the few enterprises in China who have mastered the core technology of lithium extraction of salt lakes. In the future, Jiuwu Hi-tech will further develop its technological advantages in the lithium extraction industry in salt lakes, accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and make new contributions to the upgrading and development of lithium resources industry in China.