Lithium Recovery from Water Resources by Ion Exchange and Sorption Method

Abstract

Demand to lithium rising swiftly as increasing due to its rapidly increasing dosages diverse applications such as rechargeable batteries, light aircraft alloys, and nuclear fusion. Lithium demand is expected to triple by 2025 driven by battery applications, specifically electric vehicles. To ensure the growing consumption of lithium, it is necessary to increase the production of lithium from different resources. Natural lithium resources mainly associate within granite pegmatite type deposit (spodumene and petalite ores), salt lake brines, seawater, and geothermal water. Among them, the reserves of lithium resources in salt lake brine, seawater, and geothermal water are in 70–80% of the total, which are excellent raw materials for lithium extraction. Compared to the minerals, the extraction of lithium from water resources is promising because this aqueous lithium recovery is more abundant, more environmentally friendly, and cost-effective. There are many ways to recover lithium from water resources. Among existing methods, the adsorption method is more promising on the way of manufacture. Therefore, the important progress on ion-exchange adsorption methods for lithium recovery from water resources searched ways, were summarized in detail, and the new trends in the future were also carried out.