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Pre-treatment of flowback and produced water brines prior to direct lithium extraction
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- Author / Creator
- Braun, Bennett L.
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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. -
- Graduation date
- Spring 2024
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- 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.