Lithium recovery from aqueous solution by sorption/desorption

• Sorption/desorption technique was used to recover Li from aqueous solutions.
• Four different commercially available solids were tested as sorbents.
• A maximum uptake capacity of 20–25 mg Li g− 1 was reached.
• A simple ion-exchange model was developed to describe experimental points.
• Model fits well both equilibrium and sorption/desorption kinetics experimental data

The Li-ion batteries are currently the technology of choice for the future generation of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles. New generation of these batteries based on less noble materials are currently in development. That is why the new approaches to their recycling are necessary and lithium recovery will become economically interesting. Indeed, this study deals with lithium separation from solution and is part of a larger project dealing with the recycling of the future generation of Li-ion batteries. In this study, the sorption/desorption technique was selected to evaluate lithium separation from lithium aqueous solutions. Four types of commercially available materials were used as sorbents: Amberlite IR 120 resin, molecular sieve 13X, aluminosilicate MCM 41 and activated carbons. Under the experimental conditions used in this study, the maximum lithium uptake ranging between 20 and 25 mg Li g− 1 has been reached for Amberlite IR 120 resin and molecular sieve 13X. All equilibrium and kinetics data have been described by a single-site ion exchange model.