PFI-TT: Concentrating and Separating Lithium from Brine Sources

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力在于解决锂来源问题，锂是清洁能源技术中使用的一种重要矿物。目前，美国仅生产全球约1%的锂，因此增加国内供应至关重要。该团队开发了一种创新的方法，使用一种称为界面蒸发的过程从卤水中提取锂，卤水是一种富集的水溶液。这个过程是非常有效和成本效益。该项目旨在将这项新技术从实验室中取出，并使其可用于现实世界的流程和产品。通过这样做，将有更多的低成本锂可用于支持美国的清洁能源经济计划。在整个项目中，该团队将与合作伙伴合作，从代表性不足的背景中招募学生，并为他们提供技术开发和创业方面的培训。该团队将通过I-Corps计划获得宝贵的见解和联系。此外，还将制作教育视频，帮助人们了解锂提取的重要性，以及它如何融入清洁能源技术的整个生命周期。该项目将推动新型界面蒸发工艺的技术和业务发展，以从卤水中提取锂化学品。虽然目前的锂矿开采可能是能源、化学和土地密集型的，但通过与现有工艺的轻松集成，该工艺可以将提取速度提高10倍。3D纤维蒸发器允许具有由毛细管流和蒸发流引起的各种浓度、迁移率和溶解度的阳离子物质的顺序和可分离的结晶。结果，其它盐达到它们的饱和点并沿着蒸发器长度沉淀，而氯化锂通过并作为浓缩物收集。为了使这项技术在实际应用中可行，该项目将填补结晶和分离机制方面的知识空白，并克服几个技术障碍，包括解决实际盐水条件下的界面离子，开发更有效的操作和分离工艺，表征环境条件的影响，以及优化材料和反应器系统以实现可扩展和可靠的操作。预计按比例放大将实现200 mm/天的高蒸发速率并回收超过90%的锂，这将大大提高从目前的效率10毫米/天的蒸发和小于50%该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is in solving the problem of lithium sourcing, which is an important mineral used in clean energy technologies. Right now, the United States only produces about 1% of the world's lithium, so it is crucial to increase the domestic supply. The team has developed an innovative way to extract lithium from brines, which are enriched water solutions, using a process called interfacial evaporation. This process is very effective and cost-efficient. This project aims to take this new technology from the laboratory and make it usable in real-world processes and products. By doing this, more low-cost lithium will be available to support the clean energy economy initiatives of the US. Throughout the project, the team will work with partners to recruit students from underrepresented backgrounds and provide them with training in both technology development and entrepreneurship. The team will gain valuable insights and connections through I-Corps program. Additionally, educational videos will be created to help people understand why lithium extraction is important and how it fits into the overall life cycle of clean energy technologies.The project will enable technology and business development of the novel interfacial evaporation process to extract lithium chemical from brine sources. While current lithium mining can be energy, chemical, and land-intensive, this process can accelerate the extraction by 10 folds by easy integration with existing processes. The 3D fiber evaporator allows for sequential and separable crystallization of cation species with various concentrations, mobilities, and solubilities induced by capillary and evaporative flows. As a result, other salts reach their saturation points and precipitate along the evaporator length, while lithium chloride passes through and is collected as a concentrate. To make this technology viable for real-world applications, the project will fill the knowledge gap in crystallization and separation mechanisms and overcome several technical barriers including addressing interfacing ions in actual brine conditions, developing more efficient operation and separation processes, characterizing the impact of environmental conditions, and optimizing materials and reactor systems for scalable and reliable operation. It is expected that scale up will achieve a high evaporation rate at 200 mm/day and recover over 90% of the lithium, which will greatly improve from the current efficiency of 10 mm/day evaporation and less than 50% recovery by commercial processes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.