Extraction and purification of lithium concentrate from Alberta oilfield brines

锂离子电池(LiB)行业最近的快速增长创造了对Salars等传统矿藏以外的新锂(Li)来源的需求。其中一个来源是来自加拿大西部沉积盆地油气井的卤水，该盆地位于艾伯塔省、萨斯喀彻温省、不列颠哥伦比亚省、马尼托巴省和西北地区的部分地区。从2017年开始，在NSERC Engage and Collaborative Research and Development(CRD)赠款的资助下，E3 Metals Corporation和艾伯塔大学的Alessi实验室开始合作开发技术，以提取、浓缩和提纯从艾伯塔省Leduc组卤水中常见的百万分之50-100的锂。在过去的两年里，我们开发了一种离子交换吸附技术，可以在锂含量约为60ppm、盐度超过15万ppm的盐水中将锂浓缩到5000ppm以上，同时去除&gt；99%的杂质。这项技术已经提交了专利申请，正在与两个商业实验室合作扩大规模。在目前的NSERC CRD应用中，我们的目标是将当前成功的研究计划扩展到(1)与商业实验室合作扩大我们的离子交换技术，以及(2)探索和优化锂精矿的抛光，以便它可以用于生产氢氧化锂或碳酸锂，用于LIBS。这些目标对于确保E3能够建设加拿大第一家锂提炼厂并支持加拿大西部的一个新行业至关重要。

Recent rapid growth in the lithium ion battery (LIB) industry has created a demand for new lithium (Li) sources outside of traditional deposits such as salars. One such source is brines derived from oil and gas wells in the Western Sedimentary Basin of Canada, which underlies portions of Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Manitoba and the Northwest territories. Beginning in 2017 and funded by NSERC Engage and Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) grants, E3 Metals Corporation and the Alessi Laboratory at the University of Alberta began collaborating on technologies to extract, concentrate and purify the 50-100 parts per million (ppm) Li commonly found in brines derived from the Leduc Formation, Alberta. During the past two years, we developed an ion exchange sorbent technology that can concentrate Li to over 5,000 ppm in a brine with approximately 60 ppm Li and a salinity exceeding 150,000 ppm, while simultaneously removing >99% of the impurities. This technology, for which a patent application has been submitted, is being scaled up in collaboration with two commercial laboratories. In this current NSERC CRD application, we aim to extend the current successful research program to (1) work with the commercial laboratories on scaling up our ion exchange technology, and (2) to explore and optimize the polishing of the lithium concentrate, so that it can be used to produce lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate for use in LIBs. These goals are critical pieces in ensuring that E3 can move towards the first lithium extraction plant in Canada, and to support a new industry for western Canada.