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Energies 2021, 14, 6805 55 of 72 4.4. US Bureau of Mines: Lithium Recovery by Precipitation Process The US Bureau of Mines developed a process for recovering lithium from Salton Sea geothermal brines using precipitation of lithium with aluminum chloride [65]. The aluminum chloride precipitation process was applied to brine solutions that had been treated with lime to remove metals (as described above). The lithium extraction process consisted of adding a solution of AlCl3 and increasing the pH to 7.5 with lime slurry. This process removed more than 99% of the lithium from solution [65]. The recovered lithium- aluminum precipitate was dissolved in hydrochloric acid and sparged with hydrogen chloride gas to separate out aluminum (as AlCl3). The remaining solution, containing lithium chloride and calcium chloride, was evaporated at 100 ◦C. The dried chlorides were extracted with tetrahydrofuran to leach out the calcium, allowing 97% of the lithium to be recovered [65]. After evaporation of the tetrahydrofuran, the lithium chloride was dissolved in water and treated with oxalic acid to remove impurities, resulting in 99.9% pure lithium chloride product that represented a recovery of 89% of the lithium present in the original brine [65]. This method of lithium recovery was apparently never tested at the pilot scale [65]. It can be seen from this example that although lithium recovery is clearly possible, a technology or process must be both economically and environmentally sustainable to be practical. 4.5. Simbol, Inc.: Integrated System for Lithium Recovery and Purification Starting in approximately 2008, Simbol Inc. conducted a series of projects to develop processes for the extraction and recovery of mineral resources from geothermal brines in the Salton Sea KGRA [129,130,314,319]. Mineral management, extraction, and recovery targets included silica, potassium, manganese, zinc, lead, lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and hydrochloric acid (Figure 23) [129,130,314]. Simbol conducted research and planned the Inc. and related persons and companies developed a substantial body of intellectual property (Table 7). development of commercial-scale facilities [129,130,314,320]. From these efforts, Simbol, Energies 2021, 14, x FOR PEER REVIEW 57 of 74 FiguFreig2u3re. S2i3m. SbimolbHoluHdusdosnonRaRnacnhchmminineerrallmanagemeennttananddrerceocvoevryerpyropcreoscse[s3s14[]3.14]. Simbol conducted a major research project examining the extraction and recovery of minerals from geothermal brines that was funded by the US Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission [129,130]. The project was a wide-ranging investigation of multiple processes directly and indirectly related to extraction of lithium from geothermal brine [129,130]. Since the objective of the investigators was to develop intellectual property, including patents (Table 7), some key information is missing fromPDF Image | Recovery of Lithium from Geothermal Brines
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Product and Development Focus for Infinity Turbine
ORC Waste Heat Turbine and ORC System Build Plans: All turbine plans are $10,000 each. This allows you to build a system and then consider licensing for production after you have completed and tested a unit.Redox Flow Battery Technology: With the advent of the new USA tax credits for producing and selling batteries ($35/kW) we are focussing on a simple flow battery using shipping containers as the modular electrolyte storage units with tax credits up to $140,000 per system. Our main focus is on the salt battery. This battery can be used for both thermal and electrical storage applications. We call it the Cogeneration Battery or Cogen Battery. One project is converting salt (brine) based water conditioners to simultaneously produce power. In addition, there are many opportunities to extract Lithium from brine (salt lakes, groundwater, and producer water).Salt water or brine are huge sources for lithium. Most of the worlds lithium is acquired from a brine source. It's even in seawater in a low concentration. Brine is also a byproduct of huge powerplants, which can now use that as an electrolyte and a huge flow battery (which allows storage at the source).We welcome any business and equipment inquiries, as well as licensing our turbines for manufacturing.CONTACT TEL: 608-238-6001 Email: greg@infinityturbine.com (Standard Web Page)