Patent Application
20190032230
The present invention relates to a lithium selective permeable membrane that selectively transmits lithium ions, and a lithium recovery device, a lithium recovery method, and a hydrogen production method which recovers lithium in a liquid using the same.
Recently, the importance of lithium (Li) in the industry has been intensifying due to its use in the production of materials of lithium ion batteries or fuels of nuclear fusion reactors. For example, large lithium-ion batteries are used as power supplies of electric vehicles or power storage for smart grids and smart houses. For such uses, techniques for producing Li which serves as a raw material of large lithium-ion batteries at a low cost are required. Meanwhile, in nuclear fusion reactors, tritium which serves as a fuel for nuclear fusion is produced using Li, and thus a large amount of Li is also required in this use.
Li can be extracted from minerals, but is also known to be included in the seawater, and the total amount of Li included in the entire seawater across the globe is massive. Therefore, in a case in which Li can be extracted from the seawater, it is possible to obtain a large amount of Li at a low cost.
Therefore, techniques for recovering Li from an aqueous solution including Li have been proposed. Patent Documents 1 and 2 describes techniques for selectively recovering Li by selectively adsorbing Li (ions) to an adsorbant in the seawater and then desorbing Li from the adsorbent. As the adsorbent, manganese oxide is used in the technique described in Patent Document 1, and a vinyl monomer material is used in the technique described in Patent Document 2.
In addition, Patent Document 3 describes a Li (ion) recovery device in which a lithium ion superconductor having a particularly high ion conductivity of lithium ions (for example, Li1+x+yAlx(Ti, Ge)2−xSiyP3−yO12) is used as a selective permeable membrane that selectively transmits Li ions, a raw liquid (a target liquid from which Li is recovered) and a recovery liquid (a liquid that stores recovered Li) are separated from each other using a structure in which electrodes are provided on both surfaces of the selective permeable membrane, and Li (ions) in the raw liquid is moved in the recovery liquid. In this structure, Li ions can be particularly efficiently recovered at a high selectivity by applying a voltage between both electrodes. Actually, a large amount of Li can be obtained by installing an using Li recovery devices as described above at a specific place (for example, salt lakes in South America) in a large scale.
[Patent Document 1] Published Japanese Translation No. 2012-504190 of the PCT International Publication
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2009-16174
[Patent Document 3] WO2015/020121
In a case in which U is obtained using the above-described Li recovery device, the necessary cost (Li production cost) is preferably low. Particularly, in a case in which the above-described Li recovery devices are installed and used in a large scale, the cost necessary for the installation or operation of the devices increases, and, in order to sufficiently decrease the production cost by offsetting the increase in the above-described cost, the speed of recovering Li from a raw liquid to a recovery liquid (recovery speed) needs to be sufficiently fast.
From this viewpoint, the recovery speed in the technique described in Patent Document 3 is faster than those in the techniques described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, but is still not fast enough to meet the required Li production cost, and there has been a demand for an additional improvement of the recovery speed.
Therefore, there has been a desire for recovering Li ions in a raw liquid into a recovery liquid at a high recovery speed.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an invention that solves the above described problems.
The present invention has a constitution described below in order to solve the above-described problems.
A lithium selective permeable membrane of the present invention is a lithium selective permeable membrane that is configured to selectively transmit lithium (Li) ions from a first main surface side toward a second main surface side, the lithium selective permeable membrane including a selective permeable membrane main body constituted of a ion conductor of lithium as a main body and a lithium adsorption layer that is formed on a surface of the selective permeable membrane main body on the first main surface side and selectively adsorbs the lithium ions.
In the lithium selective permeable membrane of the present invention, the lithium conductor is (Lix, Lay)TiOz, (here, x=3a−2b, y=⅔−a, z=3−b, 0<a≤⅙; 0≤b≤0.06, x>0).
In the lithium selective permeable membrane of the present invention, the selective permeable membrane main body is a sintered body including the ion conductor as a main body.
In the lithium selective permeable membrane of the present invention, the selective permeable membrane main body is constituted of particles, which are bonded together through a cation permeable membrane; constituted of the ion conductor.
In the lithium selective permeable membrane of the present invention, the cation permeable membrane is constituted of NAFION (registered trademark), SELEMION (registered trademark), or an ion liquid having a polymerized TFSI anion ((CF3SO2)2N−.
In the lithium selective permeable membrane of the present invention, the lithium adsorption layer is formed by an acid treatment on the surface of the selective permeable membrane main body on the first main surface side.
In the lithium selective permeable membrane of the present invention, the lithium adsorption layer includes lithium adsorption substance particles that are each constituted of a substance different from the selective permeable membrane main body and that each have a particle shape.
In the lithium selective permeable membrane of the present invention, the lithium adsorption substance particles are formed by carrying out an acid treatment on lithium manganate (Li1.5Mn2O4.
A lithium recovery device of the present invention is a lithium recovery device that recovers lithium into a recovery liquid which is an aqueous solution by moving lithium ions from a raw liquid which is an aqueous solution and includes the lithium to the recovery liquid, the lithium recovery device including the selective permeable membrane installed so as to separate the raw liquid and the recovery liquid with the raw liquid placed on the first main surface side and the recovery liquid placed on the second main surface side, a mesh-like first electrode fixed to the first main surface side of the lithium selective permeable membrane, and a mesh-like second electrode fixed to the second main surface side of the lithium selective permeable membrane.
A lithium recovery method of the present invention includes a pH conversion step of generating a treatment liquid that is an alkaline aqueous solution containing lithium from a raw material liquid that is non-alkaline aqueous solution containing lithium and a recovery step of recovering lithium into the recovery liquid using the treatment liquid obtained after the pH conversion step as the raw liquid and the lithium recovery device.
In the lithium recovery method of the present invention, in the pH conversion step, an electrodialysis treatment is earned out with the raw material liquid disposed on a positive potential side and an aqueous solution disposed on a negative potential side using a cation exchange membrane as boundary, and then the aqueous solution on the negative potential side is used as the treatment liquid.
The lithium recovery method of the present invention further includes a recovery step of recovering lithium into the recovery liquid from the raw liquid using the lithium recovery device.
In the lithium recovery method of the present invention, the first electrode is used as a positive side, the second electrode is used as a negative side, and a voltage is applied between the first electrode and the second electrode.
The lithium recovery method of the present invention further includes a lithium carbonate generation step of generating lithium carbonate by transmitting carbon dioxide through the recovery liquid obtained after the recovers step using pure water as the recovery liquid before initiation of the recovery step.
In a hydrogen production method of the present invention, in the lithium recovery device, pure water is used as the recovery liquid, the first electrode is used as a positive side, the second electrode is used as a negative side, and a voltage is applied between the electrode and the second electrode, thereby generating hydrogen from the recovery liquid.
The present invention is constituted as described above, and thus it is possible to recover Li ions in a raw liquid into a recover liquid at a high recovery rate.
Hereinafter, a lithium selective permeable membrane according to an embodiment of the present invention, and a Li recovery device and a Li recovery method in which the lithium selective permeable membrane is used will be described. The selective permeable membrane (lithium selective permeable membrane) includes a lithium ion superconductor as used for a selective permeable membrane described in Patent Document 3 as a main body.
In a Li (ion) recovery device described in Patent Document 3, in a case in which the lithium ion superconductor is used as the selective permeable membrane, it is possible to increase the recovery efficiency of the lithium by increasing an ion current of Li ions that flow between electrodes. Here, Li ions that are included in an aqueous solution are present as Li hydrated ions having water molecules coordinated thereto in the vicinity. In order to further increase the ion current, it is effective to realize a status in which the water molecules are easily removed from a surface of the selective permeable membrane (an interface between the selective permeable membrane and a raw liquid).
Therefore, on the surface of the selective permeable membrane which becomes the embodiment of the present invention, a Li adsorption layer that adsorbs Li ions (excluding hydrates) in the raw liquid is formed. As the Li adsorption layer, there are two types of Li adsorption layers, that is, (1) a Li adsorption layer formed by reforming a surface of a material constituting the selective permeable membrane and (2) a Li adsorption layer which is made of a material different from the selective permeable membrane and formed a thin membrane state on the surface of the selective permeable membrane.
Meanwhile, the structures and materials of the first electrode 11 and the second electrode 12 are the same as those described in Patent Document 3. In addition, in the structure of
At this time, no voltage is applied to the first electrode 11 and the second electrode 12 from the outside, and conversely, the Li recovery device 1 can be used as a battery that extracts power from the electrodes (battery mode). In this case, it is possible to move the Li ions 50 to the recovery liquid 200 from the raw liquid 100 (the Li ions 50 are made to flow as an ion current), and simultaneously, a voltage which makes the first electrode 11 serve as a negative side and the second electrode 12 serve as a positive side is generated. On the other hand, when a voltage is applied to the first electrode 11 and the second electrode 12 from the outside, it is possible to increase the ion current of the Li ions 50 more than the above-described case (electrodialysis mode). In this case, it is possible to increase the recovery efficiency of, particularly, Li (the Li ions 50) into the recovery liquid 200 although power is required.
The selective permeable membrane 10 is constituted of a selective permeable membrane main body 10A constituted of a lithium ion superconductor (ion conductor)) having a particularly high ion conductivity and a Li adsorption layer 10B formed as a thin layer on a raw liquid 100 side (the first electrode 11 side) thereof. As a material constituting the selective permeable membrane main body 10A, specifically, lanthanum lithium titanium oxide; (Lix, La y)TiO2 (here x=3a-2b, y=⅔−a, z=3−b,0<a≤⅙, 0≤≤0.06, x>0) (hereinafter LLTO) can be used, and more specifically, Li0.29La0.57TiO3(a≈0.1, b≈0) can be used. This material can be obtained, for example, as a sintered body obtained by mixing particles constituted of the material with a sintering aid or the like and sintering the mixture at a high temperature (1,000° C. or higher). In this case, a surface of the selective permeable membrane 10 can also be constituted as a porous substance in which fine particles constituted of LLTO are bonded together (sintered), and thus it is possible to increase the effective area of the surface of the selective permeable membrane main body 10A.
In the lithium ion superconductor, Li is included as one of constituent elements, and Li ions outside the crystals move between Li sites in the crystals, which develops the ion conductivity. The Li ions 50 flow in the selective permeable membrane main body 10, but the Na ions 51 are incapable of flowing in the selective permeable membrane 10. At this time, ions that are conducted in the crystals are the Li ions (Li+) 50, and hydrate ions of Li which are present in the raw liquid 100 together with the Li ions 50 do not enter the Li sites and are thus not conducted in the crystals. Regarding the above-described fact, the lithium ion superconductor is the same as that of the selective permeable membrane described in Patent Document 3.
Here, when, particularly, only a number of the Li ions 50 are adsorbed to the surface of the selective permeable membrane main body 10A using the Li adsorption layer 10B, the water molecules of the Li hydrated ions are removed during the adsorption, and the Li hydrated ions turn into Li ions, and thus it is possible to increase the conduction efficiency (the ion current that flows in the selective permeable membrane main body 10A) of the Li ions 50 from the raw liquid 100 side (the first main surface side) to the recovery liquid 200 side (the second main surface side) in the selective permeable membrane main body 10A.
The Li adsorption layer 10B is formed as a thin layer on the surface of the selective permeable membrane main body 10A by carrying out a chemical treatment on the selective permeable membrane main body 10A. Specifically, the Li adsorption layer is formed by carrying out an acid treatment on one main surface of the selective permeable membrane main body 10A (LLTO), for example, exposing the surface to hydrochloric acid or nitric acid for five days. It is assumed that a substance layer (HLTO) having a composition similar to H0.29La0.57TiO3 in which Li, which is an element that is particularly likely to be oxidized among the constituent elements of LLTO, is substituted by hydrogen in an acid due to the above-described treatment is formed.
H sites in HLTO are originally sites which Li enters, and thus H is likely to substitute the Li ion, but not likely to substitute other ions (the Na ion 51 or the like). Therefore, HLTO functions as the Li adsorption layer 10B. In addition, HLTO is generated from a reaction with an acid and thus formed only on the outermost surface of the selective permeable membrane main body 10A.
Actually, the constitution of
On the other hand,
In a case in which HLTO is used as the Li adsorption layer 10B, the adsorption efficiency of the Li ions 50 depends on pH, and a particularly great Li (ion) adsorption efficiency was obtained in a case in which the raw liquid 100 that is a subject from which Li is recovered is alkaline. Therefore, the raw liquid 100 is preferably set to be alkaline. Meanwhile, in the nature, the seawater or salt-lake brine water containing a large number of Li ions 50 (raw material liquid) is generally neutral. Therefore, in order to use the raw material liquid as the raw liquid 100, the raw material liquid is preferably set to be alkaline. It is therefore effective to use as an electrodialysis device 2 as shown in
Here, the seawater or salt-lake brine water is used as a raw material liquid 300 that is an aqueous solution containing a large amount of Li (Li ions 50). As described above, the raw material liquid 300 is neutral (no alkaline). As in the Li recovery device 1, the raw material liquid 300 and a treatment liquid 400 that is a neutral aqueous solution in the initial state (for example, pure water) are separated from each other using a cation exchange membrane 21 in a treatment layer 9. A positive electrode 23 is provided in the raw material liquid 300, and a negative electrode 22 is provided in the treatment liquid 400. Unlike the Li recovery device 1, the positive electrode 23 and the negative electrode 22 are not in contact with the cation exchange membrane 21, the positive electrode 23 side is served as positive, the negative electrode 22 side is served as negative, and a voltage is applied. As the cation exchange membrane 21, for example, SELEMION (registered trademark) CSO or the like which selectively transmits monovalent cations can be used.
A constitution of
That is, in a case in which an aqueous solution that is not alkaline (the seawater or salt-lake brine water) is used as a raw material, an alkaline aqueous solution including the Li ions 50 (the treatment liquid 400) is generated using the electrodialysis device 2 of
Next, a method for extracting Li from the recovery liquid 200 including the Li ions 50 at a high concentration will be described. As described in Patent Document 3, when the uses of Li (a Li ion battery and the like) are taken into account, Li is preferably extracted as lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) powder. Therefore, Patent Document 3 describes that hydrochloric acid (HCl) is added to the recovery liquid 200, recovery is carried out, and then a sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) aqueous solution is added thereto, thereby extracting Li as Li2CO3. However, due to its high price, it is not preferable to use sodium carbonate from the viewpoint of obtaining Li2CO3 at a low cost.
In a case in which the Li recovery device 1 is used, it is possible to particularly increase the concentration of the Li ions 50 in the recovery liquid 200 as shown in
Next, modification examples of the selective permeable membrane 10 will be described. As the selective permeable membrane 10, it is possible to use a selective permeable membrane having a different form of a selective permeable membrane including LLTO as a main body as described above. First, in the above-described example, the sintered body of LLTO, that is, a body obtained by sintering LLTO particles at a high temperature is used as the selective permeable membrane main body 10A. In contrast, it is possible to produce a selective permeable membrane main body 110A by bonding lithium ion superconductor particles 80 constituted of LLTO or the like using a cation exchange membrane 70 that is an organic substance as shown in
Even in this case, the selective transmissivity of Li is ensured by the lithium ion superconductor particles 80, and it is possible to conduct Li ions between the lithium ion superconductor particles 80 through the cation exchange membrane 70. While sintering at a high temperature is required to produce the selective permeable membrane main body 10A (sintered body), the selective permeable membrane main body 110A can be obtained by mixing power of the lithium ion superconductor particles (ion conductor particles) 80 into the cation exchange membrane 70 (NAFION) which has been dissolved in a solvent and become a liquid phase and then curing the cation exchange membrane 70 and thus the selective permeable membrane main body 110A can be obtained at a lower temperature. Therefore, it is possible to constitute the lithium ion superconductor particles 80 with, for example, a material which has a high lithium ion conductivity, but is not easily sintered at a high temperature. In addition, in this case, since a high Li non-conductive property can be obtained in the selective permeable membrane main body 110A, when this fact is used in the constitution of
In addition, the Li adsorption layer 10B is formed by carrying out an acid treatment on the selective permeable membrane main body 10A, but it is also possible to produce a Li adsorption layer 110B by applying Li-adsorbing substance panicles 81 having a Li adsorption capability like HLTO to a surface using the cation exchange membrane 70 which has become a liquid phase as shown in
In this case, the degree of freedom in selecting the substance constituting the Li adsorption layer 110B improves, and thus it is possible to select a material having a high Li-adsorbing efficiency even when the taw liquid 100 is neutral and use the material as the Li-adsorbing substance particles 81 while, for example, in the Li adsorption layer 10B (HLTO) a particularly high adsorption efficiency is obtained in a case in which the raw liquid 100 is alkaline. Specifically, it is also possible to use H1.5Mn2O4 obtained by carrying out the same acid treatment as that carried out to form HLTO on lithium manganate (Li1.5Mn2O4) power (a substance obtained by substituting Li with H in Li1.5Mn2O4; corresponding to permanganic acid) as the Li-adsorbing substance particles 81. In addition, it is also possible to use Li4Ti5O12 (lithium titanium oxide) or the like. These materials can also be set depending on the kind, pH, or the like of the raw liquid 100. In addition, the Li adsorption layer (HLTO) can also be formed in the same manner by carrying out an acid treatment in the selective permeable membrane main body 110A of
An order of obtaining lithium (lithium carbonate) from the raw material liquid 300 using the selective permeable membrane 10 or the like as described above (the lithium recovery method) is as shown in a flowchart of
However, in a case in which the Li adsorption capability doe not depend on the pH of the raw liquid 100 like the Li adsorption layer 110B in the selective permeable membrane 110, the pH conversion step (S2) is not required regardless of the pH of the raw material liquid 300, and the raw material liquid 300 can be directly used as the raw liquid 100.
After that, as described above, carbon dioxide is transmitted through the recovery liquid 200 having an increased concentration of the Li ions 50, thereby generating and precipitating lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) (lithium carbonate generation step: S4). After that, the precipitated lithium carbonate is extracted by means of filtration or the like (lithium carbonate extraction step: S5). Meanwhile, the lithium carbonate generation step (S4) and the lithium carbonate extraction step (S5) are carried out in order to obtain the recovered Li in a lithium carbonate form. Therefore, depending on the final form of the obtained Li, other treatments ate carried out instead of these steps. At this time, as the recovery liquid 200 in the initial state which is used in the recovery step (S3), it is possible to use pure water or an aqueous solution other than pure water or appropriately set the pH or the like of the aqueous solution depending on the final form of the obtained Li. It is clear, that, even in such a case, a selective permeable membrane including a combination of a selective permeable membrane main body and a Li adsorption layer as described above is effective. Meanwhile, lithium hydroxide (LiOH·H2O) as well as lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) is also used as a raw material of lithium ion batteries. In the case of obtaining lithium hydroxide, the crystals of lithium hydroxide can be easily obtained only by evaporating moisture in the recovery liquid 200.
In addition, in the Li recovery device 1, a great currant (ion current) can be made to flow between the first electrode 11 and the second electrode 12. In such a case, the electrolysis of water also proceeds, particularly, on the recovery liquid 200 side. Therefore, when pure water is used as the recovery liquid 200 in the initial state (before the initiation of the recovery step), it is also possible to generate hydrogen at a high efficiency. That is, it is also possible to realize a method for producing hydrogen at a high efficiency using the Li recovery device 1. In this case, it is preferable to use the Li recovery device 1 particularly in the electrodialysis mode.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-015423 | Jan 2016 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2017/002612 | 1/26/2017 | WO | 00 |
