US 12,351,471 B2
Lithium purification and conversion
Dominic Vincent Perroni, Sugar Land, TX (US); Gary W. Sams, Houston, TX (US); Florence Binet, Houston, TX (US); and Rod William Shampine, Sugar Land, TX (US)
Assigned to Schlumberger Technology Corporation, Sugar Land, TX (US)
Filed by Schlumberger Technology Corporation, Sugar Land, TX (US)
Filed on May 24, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/673,417.
Application 18/673,417 is a division of application No. 18/060,735, filed on Dec. 1, 2022, granted, now 12,215,035.
Application 18/060,735 is a continuation in part of application No. 17/815,593, filed on Jul. 28, 2022, abandoned.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/203,777, filed on Jul. 30, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2024/0308865 A1, Sep. 19, 2024
Int. Cl. C01D 15/04 (2006.01); B01D 61/02 (2006.01); C01D 15/02 (2006.01); C01D 15/08 (2006.01); C02F 1/44 (2023.01); C02F 101/10 (2006.01)
CPC C01D 15/04 (2013.01) [B01D 61/026 (2022.08); C01D 15/02 (2013.01); C01D 15/08 (2013.01); C02F 1/441 (2013.01); B01D 2311/2512 (2022.08); B01D 2315/24 (2022.08); B01D 2317/022 (2013.01); C02F 2101/10 (2013.01); C02F 2301/046 (2013.01); C02F 2301/08 (2013.01)] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of recovering lithium from a brine source, comprising:
extracting lithium from the brine source using an ion withdrawal process to form a lithium extract;
concentrating a stream derived from the lithium extract using a counter-flow reverse osmosis operation, to yield a lithium concentrate and a dilute brine stream;
using a reverse osmosis operation to separate the dilute brine stream into two streams including a permeate stream; and
recycling the permeate stream,
wherein the counter-flow reverse osmosis operation includes flowing the stream derived from the lithium extract into a plurality of reactors, each containing a semi-permeable membrane separating the reactor into a first volume and a second volume,
wherein the stream derived from the lithium extract flows as a non-permeating stream sequentially into the first volume of each reactor and a permeating stream flows sequentially into the second volume of each reactor counter-current to the non-permeating stream, and
wherein the non-permeating stream exiting the plurality of reactors yields the lithium concentrate and the permeating stream exiting the plurality of reactors yields the dilute brine stream.