Pre-treatment of flowback and produced water brines prior to direct lithium extraction

• Author / Creator

  Braun, Bennett L.

• Lithium is crucial for battery production and is utilized in electric vehicles and portable
  electronics. Among alternative sources of lithium is flowback and produced water (FPW) brines,
  which can be recovered utilizing ion-exchange with sorbents such as lithium manganese oxide
  spinels. Among challenges to the commercialization of Mn(IV) sorbents is sorbent degradation
  due to dissolved organic compounds (DOC) in FPW, which include (1) reductive dissolution of
  the Mn(IV) oxide and the loss of Mn(IV) into Mn(II/III) and (2) the physical coating of sorbents
  with DOC, inhibiting lithiation or protonation of the sorbent. Lithium-bearing FPW brines
  require pre-treatment before entering the ion-exchange process for Li-extraction with a highly
  Li-selective Mn(IV) oxide sorbent. Combined aeration and filtration is one approach to remove
  DOC to prevent manganese loss from or coating of the sorbent, ultimately improving the Liextraction performance. In this study, we used FPW samples that contained total dissolved solids
  (TDS) that exceed 167,000 ppm and lithium concentrations that range from 43-50 ppm. Head-to-head lithium extractions with aerated and untreated FPW samples were conducted to observe the
  effect of pre-treatment on lithium extraction performance and sorbent cyclability. In the batch
  testing, the treated samples generally yielded higher lithium uptake values compared to the
  untreated samples. Improved lithium uptake performance is attributed to removing organics that
  coat the sorbent and inhibit lithiation during direct lithium extraction (DLE). The manganese loss
  displayed no consistent trend and the untreated samples yielded lower manganese loss compared
  to the treated samples. Further research should be completed on the pre-treatment aspects of
  FPW to limit manganese loss in order to improve the DLE process.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Lithium
  • Direct Lithium Extraction
  • Flowback and produced water brines
  • Pre-treatment
  • Aeration
  • Filtration
  • Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin
  • DLE

• Graduation date

  Spring 2024

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-ybne-fw41

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.