Plasma Accelerates Lithium Extraction Process

There are many researchers around the world looking to develop new batteries without lithium. Until one, or more, of these teams manage to find a viable solution, we will remain dependent on the element for energy storage. With the increasing adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy, lithium has never been more in demand. However, it tends to be difficult and very environmentally unfriendly to extract. If we could make the extraction process more efficient, then it would fulfil the demand for lithium until cleaner, easy to access battery chemistries were economically viable. It would also mean we needed to use smaller amounts of environmentally damaging substances in the process.

A team of researchers from the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE) has been looking for a solution to this problem, and have recently published a paper on a new technique that can increase the efficiency of the extraction process by three times compared to pre-existing methods by using their new CO2 microwave plasma technology.

Today, the most widely used method of extracting lithium is by mixing sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) to saltwater that contains lithium and extracting lithium carbonate (Li2CO3). Li2CO3 is a mixture of lithium and carbon dioxide. The mixture then has to go through an additional process to separate the lithium carbonate from the sodium impurities that have blended with each other during the extraction process. There alternative method to extract lithium is to use carbon dioxide gasinstead of sodium carbonate. This method is has very low extraction rates in brine where lithium salt - a bond between lithium and chlorine - exists.

Researchers, Dr. Ji Hun Kim and Dr. Jong keun Yang designed a new method of extracting lithium using carbon dioxide microwave plasma technology. This technique involves ionizing carbon dioxide into a plasma state-to increase the rate of lithium extraction. Experiments were conducted to compare the new carbon dioxide plasma lithium extraction and existing methods of lithium extraction utilizing simulated brine. Those experiments showed that using plasma technology increased extraction rates by around 3 times - while direct injections of carbon dioxide gas provided 10.3% lithium extraction rates, using carbon dioxide plasma, the lithium extraction rate reached 27.87%.

A paper entitled “Novel approach for recovering lithium from simulated aqueous solutions using carbon dioxide microwave plasma “on the research was published in DESALINATION. Lead author of the paper, Dr. Yang said, “It was possible to confirm the effects of the heat and ions, electrons, radicals etc. that are generated when carbon dioxide plasma forms on lithium extraction rates. We plan to expand research into plasma lithium extraction processes through additional research into carbon dioxide plasma reactions.”

Researchers are hopeful that lithium extraction processes using plasma can be a novel approach for developing technology that can more efficiently extract lithium from seawater with lower concentrations of lithium.

President Suk Jae Yoo of KFE remarked that, “This research shows a new possible use for plasma technology. Lithium obtained from seawater is a crucial component of fusion energy generation, and we will continue to conduct research into both fusion energy development and fusion energy fuel acquisition.”