GEA (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.gea.com) has received a larger order from MSP Engineering Pty Ltd, to equip a new, ultra-modern facility for Tianqi Lithium Australia Pty Ltd for the production and processing of lithium. In detail, GEA will supply and install evaporation, crystallization and drying technology for the plant in Kwinana, 38 km south of Perth, Western Australia. The installation is planned for 2017.
The Tianqi Lithium Corp., which controls a majority stake in the Talison Greenbushes mine, the world’s premier producer of lithium concentrate from spodumene, is building a downstream processing plant for lithium hydroxide. The plant will convert around 161,000 metric tons (m.t.) per year of spodumene concentrate into 24,000 m.t./yr of lithium hydroxide, for use in the growing global market for lithium ion batteries.
After completing extensive and successful test work at GEA facilities in Europe the scope includes engineering design, fabrication, testing and commissioning of the key process equipment to produce a pure lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LiOH.H2O), including packaging, with as byproduct a dried sodium sulfate.
“In the area of lithium processing, GEA has extensive experience in the realization of such systems for which we offer a very large technology portfolio covering the entire production chain of lithium production. In addition to the components ordered here, this also includes the spray drying area of lithium, where GEA has a very large market share worldwide,” says Niels Erik Olsen, member of GEA’s Management Board and responsible for Business Area Solutions.