Claims
- 1. A process for recovering lithium carbonate from a brine containing lithium and magnesium comprising:
- (a) preparing a feed brine by concentrating a brine comprising lithium and magnesium ions to saturate the brine with magnesium chloride and lithium chloride and to precipitate LiCl.MgCl.sub.2.7H.sub.2 O;
- (b) adding Ca(OH).sub.2 to the mother liquor recycled from step (e) to yield limed mother liquor;
- (c) mixing the limed mother liquor with said feed brine while maintaining a pH of from 8.40 to 8.80 to precipitate the magnesium ions as magnesium hydroxide and to precipitate calcium carbonate,
- (d) recovering the brine from step (c) and adding a sufficient amount of sodium carbonate to precipitate lithium carbonate;
- (e) separating the precipitated lithium carbonate from the mother liquor; and
- (f) recycling the mother liquor produced in step (e) to step (b).
- 2. The process of claim 1, wherein the concentration of lithium ion in the feed brine is from about 5.5 to about 6.5% by wt.
- 3. The process of claim 1, wherein the LiCl.MgCl.sub.2.7H.sub.2 O is recovered and processed to recover the lithium contained therein.
- 4. The process of claim 1, wherein the pH in step (c) is between 8.55 and 8.75.
Parent Case Info
This applications claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional No. 60/093,067 filed Jul. 16, 1998.
US Referenced Citations (8)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
9929624 |
Jun 1999 |
WOX |