Sorption properties of lithium ions on strong acid cation exchanges

Lithium is the lightest solid element. It is a value element because it has presence in huge range of areas, from nuclear industry till medicine. Lithium applications are increasing and, consequently, its demand. Lithium waste is an important issue. Lithium recovering from exit industrial liquids is very useful in order to reuse this element. One way to remove the valuable lithium ions from the liquid solution is using ion exchangers. Ion exchange is a reversible process. Lithium ions are fixed in the resin beads and then they are able to be exchanged from the resin beads to other solution. This project studies this lithium ion exchange on strong acid cation exchangers. Three types of strong acid cation exchangers were used but, finally, only one of them was suitable. A column was filled with 40 mL of resin. After that, lithium solution went through the column and lithium ions were fixed in the resin beads. Ammonium chloride solutions of different concentration went through the column in order to remove lithium from the resin beads. Finally, lithium concentration was measured from eluate of the column along the time. After six experiments some conclusions were evidences. The resin used is able to remove high concentration of lithium. The process speed is controlled by mass transfer (ion diffusion). Moreover, some mass transfer problems appear when the concentration is low (below 0.5M)