The high demand for lithium is increasing drastically due to its applications in electronic devices, electric vehicles, and other components. The present case study focuses on studying the sorption capacity of two resins − Dowex G26 and Dowex X8 – in capturing lithium from pregnant solutions generated by the leaching of lepidolite and spodumene ores. Preliminary characterization studies were performed using synthetic solutions to understand the behaviour of the resins without the interference of competing ions. The results suggest that Dowex G26 exhibits a higher loading capacity. Additionally, the mass action law and a sigmoid function were used to model respectively the equilibrium in the sorption process and the kinetics of extraction in a continuous fixed bed operation. In a second phase of experiments, the resulting optimal operating conditions were used to study the ion exchange extraction from leaching liquors of lepidolite and spodumene ores. These liquors are complex solutions with competing ions. Ion exchange assays were optimized, and the maximum loading capacity for the leaching liquors was 1.8 meq lithium/g of resin, which corresponds to 71 % of Li sorption. For the elution, the maximum lithium extraction from the resins achieved was 82 %.

中文翻译：

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离子交换吸附锂


由于锂在电子设备、电动汽车和其他部件中的应用，对锂的高需求正在急剧增加。本案例研究的重点是研究两种树脂（Dowex G26 和 Dowex X8）从锂云母和锂辉石矿石浸出产生的母液中捕获锂的吸附能力。使用合成溶液进行初步表征研究，以了解树脂的行为，而不会受到竞争离子的干扰。结果表明 Dowex G26 表现出更高的负载能力。此外，质量作用定律和 S 形函数分别用于模拟连续固定床操作中吸附过程的平衡和萃取动力学。在实验的第二阶段，所得到的最佳操作条件用于研究锂云母和锂辉石矿石浸出液中的离子交换萃取。这些液体是具有竞争性离子的复杂溶液。离子交换测定经过优化，浸出液的最大负载能力为 1.8 meq 锂/g 树脂，相当于 71% 的 Li 吸附。对于洗脱，从树脂中提取的最大锂提取率为 82%。