Qinghai Golmud, June 6 (ZXS) -- Topic: China's salt lake lithium extraction technology change: extensive pollution to green cycle
Written by Li Jun
From mechanized mining, chemical lithium extraction, to adsorption and extraction of lithium, and then to the efficient lithium extraction of raw brine... After more than 70 years of scientific and technological innovation and wide application, China's salt lake lithium extraction technology has gradually matured and presented novel performance and cultivation potential.
"As early as 1950, China began to mine salt lake lithium resources, but the salt lake lithium extraction technology at that time was not mature, mainly mechanized mining and chemical extraction of lithium, and later found that these methods produced a large amount of wastewater and tailings, which brought great pollution to the environment." On the 6th, Ye Lijun, secretary general of the China Inorganic Salt Industry Association, said in an interview with reporters.
As the lightest metal element in nature, the lowest potential of the standard electrode and the largest electrochemical equivalent, lithium has long-term demand rigidity in power and energy storage application scenarios requiring high specific energy, and is known as "white oil".
Ye Lijun said that lithium resources are the guarantee for the sustainable and healthy development of lithium battery new energy industry, 70% of the world's lithium resources are from salt lakes, and the development of salt lake lithium extraction technology plays a vital role in the world's lithium industry.
"Through more than ten years of hard work and polishing, the adsorption lithium extraction + membrane separation and concentration coupling technology has broken through the problem of lithium extraction from 'ultra-high magnesium-lithium ratio and low lithium content' brine, realized the key separation of magnesium-lithium ratio from 500:1 to 6:1, formed a green environmental protection technology for the separation of magnesium-lithium separation of salt lake brine with independent intellectual property rights, and improved the comprehensive development and cascade utilization of salt lake resources." Ma Lichun, vice president of Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co., Ltd., said.
In May 2021, Minmetals Salt Lake Co., Ltd. conquered the "high-efficiency lithium extraction technology of raw brine".
"This technology uses the adsorption process to replace the Yantian spreading process, successfully realizing the 'lithium extraction front', shortening the production cycle from 2 years to less than 2 months. For the first time, large-scale continuous separation equipment was applied to realize direct lithium extraction from primary halogen, and the comprehensive lithium yield increased from the original 36% to about 60%, and the total lithium extraction yield was doubled. Zhang Dayi, deputy general manager of Minmetals Salt Lake Co., Ltd., said.
Li Xiaosong, chief scientist of Qaidam Circular Economy Pilot Zone, said that although compared with the South American lithium triangle and Australia, China's lithium resource reserves are relatively lacking, but the technical level has ranked in the forefront of the world. In the future, breakthroughs in the green development and technological innovation of lithium battery materials will become the characteristic highlights of the development of the lithium industry. (End)