Sorption-based Lithium extraction from diverse brines using aluminium-based adsorbent

As demand and pressures to produce more lithium increases in the world in a more cost effective and environmentally sustainable, the existing proven methods such as aluminate-based adsorption should be adapted and combined with naturally heated brines to reduce cost, complexity and carbon footprint of production. In this study, an improved type of aluminate-based adsorbent was utilized to adsorb Li content of different brine sources, to show the relationship between the performance of the adsorbent and other factors in the brine. Different brine samples were synthesised from various geographical locations around the world to check the adsorption capacity of the proposed adsorbent. While the results showed that the brines from some locations have similar adsorption trends, the brine from other locations did not follow that pattern. It was found that the main reasons for such differences were total dissolved solids and the presence or absence of certain cations. Theoretical models and kinetics of reactions were also studied and confirmed the findings of experimental results. The findings of this research can be applied with high confidence to brine samples with similar ion compositions. • Improved aluminate-based adsorbent for lithium extraction from diverse brines. • Adsorption efficiency linked to TDS, specific cations, and temperature. • Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms validated experimental results. • Thermodynamic analysis confirmed exothermic and selective lithium recovery. • Sustainable and cost-effective method for lithium production.