Selective Recovery and Recycling of Lithium from Produced Water Bakken Oilfield in North Dakota
Publication: World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
During the last decade, the demand for lithium has been growing exponentially with its widespread uses in manufacturing, especially with the worldwide deployment of electric vehicles. Thus, lithium is considered integral to the US economy, technological advancement, and the pursuit of sustainable and clean energy solutions. The produced water is known to be rich in several minerals and valuable elements, such as potassium and magnesium, and a trace amount of precious elements including lithium. However, the existence of metals in the produced water is one of the challenges to extract lithium, especially magnesium which is located in diagonal positions within the periodic table that exhibit similarities. The produced water was first purified, resulting in the complete removal of magnesium, and then lithium was precipitated by phosphate. The effects of operating conditions on the Li3PO4 precipitation behaviors were evaluated. The effect of different precipitating reagents was evaluated on the percentage of lithium extracted; Na3PO4 (TSP) was found to be a promising Li precipitating reagent. The highest percentage of lithium extracted was reached when the Li concentration of produced water was enriched and increased up to 350 mg/L, then Li removal was 53% at 7 g of TSP and 200 rpm for 2 h. The results indicated that temperature is a more important factor than stirring speed. The novelty of the current work is not only by the results obtained that may create additional financial benefits to oil-producing areas but on that the sustainable disposal of produced water may encourage the recycling and reuse practice, ultimately reducing the use of freshwater for hydraulic fracturing.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2024
Pages: 373 - 384
History
Published online: May 16, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Chemical compounds
- Chemical elements
- Chemicals
- Chemistry
- Continuum mechanics
- Ecosystems
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Engineering mechanics
- Environmental engineering
- Fracture mechanics
- Hydraulic fracturing
- Magnesium
- Materials engineering
- Pollutants
- Practice and Profession
- Recycling
- Solid mechanics
- Sustainable development
- Trace elements
- Wastewater management
- Water and water resources
- Water demand
- Water management
- Water reclamation
- Water supply
- Water treatment
- Water use
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