CleanTech Lithium, a sustainable lithium developer in Chile, is collaborating with DuPont Water Solutions, a business unit of DuPont (Wilmington, Del.), to test lithium processing technology. DuPont has developed a new nanofiltration (NF) membrane technology for high lithium recovery. This will be tested in CleanTech Lithium’s direct lithium extraction (DLE) downstream process.
The role of the NF is to remove impurities and maximize lithium recovery. DuPont’s new NF membrane element (named FilmTec™ LiNE-XD nanofiltration elements) is specifically designed for the lithium sector and will be tested in CTL’s next scheduled phase of post-DLE pilot plant testing. CTL is implementing NF following the eluate concentration stage which utilitizes industrial forward osmosis (iFO™) in the concentrating of lithium and reduction of boron. CleanTech Lithium is investigating the potential of these technologies to eliminate the need for thermal evaporation (TE) and crystallization in production of battery grade lithium carbonate, which would result in potentially significant CAPEX savings.
Ignacio Mehech, CEO, CleanTech Lithium, said: “Our collaboration on testing a new NF membrane developed by DuPont for high selectivity in removing impurities while maximizing lithium recovery, is in line with CleanTech Lithium’s mission to deliver efficient and sustainable lithium extraction. By leveraging advanced membrane technology, we aim to test if battery-grade lithium carbonate can be produced without the need for thermal evaporation and crystallization, resulting in potential cost savings and increased efficiency. We look forward to validating this through our upcoming pilot plant downstream operations with our partner Conductive Energy.”