Kinetic study on the chlorination of β-spodumene for lithium extraction with Cl2 gas

In this paper, the kinetics chlorination of β-spodumene for the extraction of lithium has been studied using gaseous chlorine as chlorinating agent. The effect of chlorine flow rate, temperature, mass of the sample, and partial pressure of Cl2 was investigated. The study of the effect of chlorine flow rate indicated that the chlorination of β-spodumene may be carried out in the presence of active chlorinating species The chlorine partial pressure was found to have an appreciable effect on the system reactivity. The temperature was found to be the most important variable affecting the reaction rate. The β-spodumene chlorination process by Cl2 was characterized by an apparent activation energy of about 359 kJ/mol in the range from 1000 to 1100 °C. Reaction was of non-catalytic gas–solid nature and experimental data fitted the sequential nucleation and growth model.

► β-Spodumene was chlorinated to extract lithium with pure chlorine.
► The kinetics of the chlorination was studied in the range of 1000–1100 °C.
► Cl2 flow rate, sample mass, and Cl2 partial pressure were the operating variables.
► Experimental data were best fitted by the sequential nucleation and growth model.