The production of lithium-based on primary sources has been facing the issue that increasing demand might not be met. The trend of recovering lithium from secondary resources including groundwater, brine water, and lithium-battery-recycling-plant wastewater is receiving attention. Numerous technologies such as chemical precipitation and adsorption have been developed to recover lithium from wastewater. These methods mentioned above are not applied commonly in the industry because of drawbacks like high operating cost and/or the production of secondary waste- sludge. Fluidized-bed crystallization technology was investigated a few decades ago, reducing the sludge production by crystallizing on the fluidized medium. This technology has not been applied for treatment of lithium-containing wastewater, however, impurity of products caused by the presence of the heterogeneous seed makes this method not suitable for the recent trend of a sustainable environment. There has been development in the conventional fluidized-bed crystallization process, which is fluidized-bed homogeneous crystallization technology. In a fluidized-bed homogeneous crystallization system, precise hydraulic control of supersaturation degree leads to spontaneous nucleation and particle growth in the bed without any supporting seeds.
In this study, lithium synthetic wastewater was treated by fluidized-bed homogeneous crystallization. Factors including final pHf, initial [P]0 : [Li]0 molar ratio, reaction time, temperature were tested while operating jar-test. Lithium phosphate particles were recovered from lithium synthetic wastewater by the investigation of fluidized-bed homogeneous crystallization technology with factors such as temperature, effluent pHe, [P]0 : [Li]0 molar ratio, lithium initial concentration, cross-sectional loading, static bed height, seed size and upflow velocity. Product crystals were characterized for surface morphology, crystal structure, and composition analysis. The investigation claimed that effluent pHe and temperature were key factors for maximization of lithium total removal efficiency (TR) and crystallization ratio (CR). Optimal conditions including temperature of 75°C, [P]0 : [Li]0 molar ratio of 1 : 2, initial lithium concentration of solution around 1000 mg/L (0.14 M), cross-sectional loading of 2.5 kg/m2.h, static bed height higher than 25 cm, seed size of 0.2 mm will lead to suitable supersaturation degree for crystallization process with results for lithium total removal of 90% and crystallization ratio of around 88%. By operating fluidized-bed homogeneous crystallization process at optimal hydraulic conditions, high purity particles of lithium phosphate (Li3PO4, # 15-0760) were be recovered from synthetic wastewater.

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