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http://dx.doi.org/10.7844/kirr.2019.28.5.3

Lithium - A Critical Metal for Clean Energy Technologies: A Comprehensive Review on Challenges and Opportunities for Securing Lithium from Primary and Secondary Resources  

Swain, Basudev (Materials Science and Chemical Engineering Center, Institute for Advanced Engineering (IAE))
Kim, Min-seuk (Mineral Resources Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM))
Lee, Chan-Gi (Materials Science and Chemical Engineering Center, Institute for Advanced Engineering (IAE))
Chung, Kyeong Woo (Mineral Resources Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM))
Lee, Jae-chun (Mineral Resources Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM))
Publication Information
Resources Recycling / v.28, no.5, 2019 , pp. 3-18 More about this Journal
Abstract
Due to the increasing demand for clean energy, the consumption of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) is expected to grow steadily. Therefore, stable supply of lithium is becoming an important issue globally. Commercially, most of lithium is produced from the brine and minerals viz., spodumene, although various processes/technologies have been developed to recover lithium from other resources such as low grade ores, clays, seawaters and waste lithium ion batteries. In particular, commercialization of such recycling technologies for end-of-life LIBs being generated from various sources including mobile phones and electric vehicles(EVs), has a great potential. This review presents the commercial processes and also the emerging technologies for exploiting minerals and brines, besides that of newly developed lithium-recovery-processes for the waste LIBs. In addition, the future lithium-supply is discussed from the technical point of view. Amongst the emerging processes being developed for lithium recovery from low-grade ores, focus is mostly on the pyro-cum-hydrometallurgical based approaches, though only a few of such approaches have matured. Because of low recycling rate (<1%) of lithium globally compared to the consumption of lithium ion batteries (56% of lithium produced currently), processing of secondary resources could be foresighted as the grand opportunity. Considering the carbon economy, environment, and energy concerns, the hydrometallurgical process may potentially resolve the issue.
Keywords
lithium; brine; LIBs; EVs; recycling;
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