Nature ( IF 50.5 ) Pub Date : 2024-12-11 , DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08117-1 Sixie Yang, Yigang Wang, Hui Pan, Ping He, Haoshen Zhou
In the quest for environmental sustainability, the rising demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies has substantially increased the need for efficient lithium extraction methods. Traditional lithium production, relying on geographically concentrated hard-rock ores and salar brines, is associated with considerable energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, groundwater depletion and land disturbance, thereby posing notable environmental and supply chain challenges. On the other hand, low-quality brines—such as those found in sedimentary waters, geothermal fluids, oilfield-produced waters, seawater and some salar brines and salt lakes—hold large potential owing to their extensive reserves and widespread geographical distribution. However, extracting lithium from these sources presents technical challenges owing to low lithium concentrations and high magnesium-to-lithium ratios. This Review explores the latest advances and continuing challenges in lithium extraction from these demanding yet promising sources, covering a variety of methods, including precipitation, solvent extraction, sorption, membrane-based separation and electrochemical-based separation. Furthermore, we share perspectives on the future development of lithium extraction technologies, framed within the basic principles of separation processes. The aim is to encourage the development of innovative extraction methods capable of making use of the substantial potential of low-quality brines.
中文翻译:
从劣质盐水中提锂
在追求环境可持续性的过程中,对电动汽车和可再生能源技术的需求不断增长,大大增加了对高效锂提取方法的需求。传统的锂生产依赖于地理上集中的硬岩矿石和盐沼盐水,与大量的能源消耗、温室气体排放、地下水枯竭和土地扰动有关,从而带来显著的环境和供应链挑战。另一方面,低质量的盐水——例如在沉积水域、地热流体、油田生产水域、海水和一些盐沼盐水和盐湖中发现的盐水——由于其广泛的储量和广泛的地理分布而具有巨大的潜力。然而,由于锂浓度低且镁锂比高,从这些来源提取锂存在技术挑战。本综述探讨了从这些要求苛刻但前景广阔的来源中提取锂的最新进展和持续的挑战,涵盖了多种方法,包括沉淀、溶剂萃取、吸附、基于膜的分离和基于电化学的分离。此外,我们还分享了对锂提取技术未来发展的看法,这些技术以分离过程的基本原则为框架。其目的是鼓励开发能够利用低质量盐水的巨大潜力的创新提取方法。