Abstract
Lithium recovery from β-spodumene was conducted using a hydrometallurgical process consisting of water leaching and calcination. Water leaching experiments were conducted using a mixture of β-spodumene and CaO. The effect of experimental parameters such as the particle size of β-spodumene, reaction temperature, reaction time, and mass ratio of CaO to β-spodumene on the lithium leaching efficiency was investigated. The Ca(OH)2 and CaCO3 in the leach residue were converted to CaO by calcination at 900°C. The calcined product was recycled into in the leaching process to recover additional lithium. Four leaching stages based on a 75-μm particle undersize, reaction temperature of 100°C, 3:1 mass ratio of CaO to β-spodumene, and overall reaction time of 9 h resulted in 97% lithium yield from spodumene. The process developed in this work succeeded in reducing the overall amount of chemicals used relative to the conventional spodumene treatment process, allowing for the effective leaching of lithium through a simple hydrometallurgical process. In addition, given that the final leach residue consisted of Ca(OH)2 and CaCO3, it could be reused in the water leaching process following calcination, further contributing to the sustainability of the proposed process
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. Chagnes, and J. Światowska, Lithium Process Chemistry: Resources, Extraction, Batteries, and Recycling (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2015).
USGS, Mineral commodity summaries 2022 (US Geological Survey, 2022).
F. Wang, J.D. Harindintwali, Z. Yuan, M. Wang, F. Wang, S. Li, Z. Yin, L. Huang, Y. Fu, L. Li, S.X. Chang, L. Zhang, J. Rinklebe, Z. Yuan, Q. Zhu, L. Xiang, D.C.W. Tsang, L. Xu, X. Jiang, J. Liu, N. Wei, M. Kästner, Y. Zou, Y.S. Ok, J. Shen, D. Peng, W. Zhang, D. Barceló, Y. Zhou, Z. Bai, B. Li, B. Zhang, K. Wei, H. Cao, Z. Tan, L.-B. Zhao, X. He, J. Zheng, N. Bolan, X. Liu, C. Huang, S. Dietmann, M. Luo, N. Sun, J. Gong, Y. Gong, F. Brahushi, T. Zhang, C. Xiao, X. Li, W. Chen, N. Jiao, J. Lehmann, A. Schäffer, J.M. Tiedje, and J.M. Chen, Innovation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100180 (2021).
International Energy Agency, Global EV Outlook 2021: Accelerating ambitions despite the pandemic (2021). https://doi.org/10.1787/3a394362-en.
K. Kim, K-Battery’s opportunities and challenges. Presentation at Korea Advanced Battery Conference (KABC 2021), SNe Research, 13–14 October 2021.
D.E. Garrett, Handbook of Lithium and Natural Calcium Chloride (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2004).
H. Li, J. Eksteen, and G. Kuang, Hydrometallurgy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2019.105129 (2019).
L.I. Barbosa, J.A. González, and M.D.C. Ruiz, Thermochim. Acta. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tca.2015.02.009 (2015).
G. Kuang, Y. Liu, H. Li, S. Xing, F. Li, and H. Guo, Hydrometallurgy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2018.02.015 (2018).
G.D. Rosales, M.C. Ruiz, and M.H. Rodriguez, Chem. Eng. Res. Des. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2019.08.009 (2019).
G.D. Rosales, M.C. Ruiz, and M.H. Rodriguez, Minerals. https://doi.org/10.3390/min6040098 (2016).
G.D. Rosales, M.C. Ruiz, and M.H. Rodriguez, Hydrometallurgy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2014.04.009 (2014).
L.S. Santos, R.M. Nascimento, and S.B.C. Pergher, Chem. Eng. Res. Des. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2019.05.019 (2019).
B.R. Davis, M.S. Moats, and S. Wang, Extraction 2018—Proceedings of the First Global Conference on Extractive Metallurgy (Springer, Cham, 2018).
K.M. Hill and H. Knott, The Design of plants for handling hydrofluoric acid. Paper presented at Symposium on Chemical Process Hazards, Institution of Chemical Engineers, 1960
M. Kenny and T. Oates, Lime and Limestone, in: Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. Weinheim, 2007) https://doi.org/10.1002/14356007.a15_317.pub2
G.H. Beall, M. Comte, M.J. Dejneka, P. Marques, P. Pradeau, and C. Smith, Front. Mater. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmats.2016.00041 (2016).
A. Ezaami, E.S. Jmal, I. Chaaba, W.C. Koubaa, A. Cheikhrouhou, and E.K. Hlil, J. Alloys Compd. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.05.332 (2016).
J.K. Guy, and R.E. Martin, Solid State Ion. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssi.2008.03.005 (2008).
R. Kr, S. Nishant, and K. Dinesh, Appl. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-020-04233-7 (2021).
N. Manjula, M. Pugalenthi, V.S. Nagarethinam, K. Usharani, and A.R. Balu, Mater. Sci. Pol. https://doi.org/10.1515/msp-2015-0115 (2015).
V.I. Merupo, S. Velumani, M. Bizarro, A. Kassiba, Structural, morphological and optical properties of sol-gel prepared Cu doped BiVO4 powders. Paper presented at the 12th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing, Science and Automatic Control (CCE), IEEE, Mexico City, Mexico, 28–30 October, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEEE.2015.7357978
Y. Marcus, Chem. Rev. https://doi.org/10.1021/cr00090a003 (1998).
Z. Mirghiasi, F. Bakhtiari, E. Darezereshki, and E. Esmaeizadeh, J. Ind. Eng. Chem. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2013.04.018 (2014).
HSC Chemistry software for windows Ver. 6.1. 2006.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Basic Research Project (GP2020-013) of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT of the Republic of Korea
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
DL: Writing-Original draft preparation, Software, Investigation, Visualization, Data curation. Y-YJ: Writing-Reviewing and Editing, Methodology, Resources, Validation. DJS: Writing-Reviewing and Editing, Methodology, Software, Validation. SMS: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing-Reviewing and Editing, Project administrator.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interest
All the authors confirm that there is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, D., Joo, YY., Shin, D.J. et al. Recovery of Lithium from Beta-Spodumene Through Serial Calcination and Water Leaching with CaO. JOM 76, 1477–1484 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-023-06213-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-023-06213-7