Lithium Extraction from Produced Water using Lithium Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide Chloride Sorbent

Abstract Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are crucial components for renewable energy generation and storage technologies, making lithium an essential mineral due to its irreplaceable role in LIB because of its unique physiochemical properties. While lithium is traditionally extracted from solid mineral deposits or Salar brines in the lithium triangle of South America, alternative sources such as produced water from oil and gas reservoirs offer a promising yet underutilized opportunity. Nevertheless, produced water from oil and gas reservoirs contains low lithium levels but can be enriched through desalination. This approach concentrates lithium and generates fresh water that can be utilized for various upstream oil and gas applications, including improved oil recovery, formulating fracking fluids and oil desalting, along with other potential uses like irrigation. In this study, we analyzed the lithium concentration in produced water desalination reject, finding it to be 60 ppm amid a concentrated brine matrix with a total dissolved solids (TDS) of approximately 290,000 ppm. We synthesized a selective lithium aluminum layered double hydroxide chloride (LADH-Cl) sorbent to effectively capture lithium at low levels. The sorbent was characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), confirming its successful synthesis. When applied to real-produced water desalination reject samples, the LADH-Cl sorbent reduced lithium concentration from 60 ppm to 21 ppm using just 51.2 mg of sorbent with 20 g of brine. This work highlights the potential of LADH-Cl as an effective sorbent for lithium extraction from produced water, offering a dual benefit of waste brine utilization and valuable lithium recovery.