Manufacture of sodium-free lithium chloride from salt lake brine

Process assessment experiment was conducted to investigate the applicability of integration technology (CCI, concentration, cooling and ion exchange) to manufacture sodium-free lithium chloride from salt lake brine. The preliminary separation process of sodium from brine, using evaporating concentration by adding surfactant, showed the amount of sodium in brine decreases to below 0.187%. Then, brine was further cooling separation process which was characterized in that the ammonia is added in order to decrease the solubility of NaCl. The purification of lithium chloride from cooling brine was then conducted with a novel separation process which was designed by a novel ion exchange method using inorganic ion-exchanger Li1.4Cr0.4Ti1.6 (PO4)(3). The total yield of Lid I with the present purification process was 86.16%, and the sodium concentration in the supernatant is 0.0005 wt.%. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.