Selective recovery and recycling of lithium: prospects for the use of membrane methods

In recent years, the interest of researchers in the problem of lithium extraction (production) has increased due to the drastic increase in its demand: according to the Scopus database, about 3000 scientific articles were published on this problem in 2021. The efforts of many specialists are aimed at the development of new, more economical and environmental-friendly membrane technologies for lithium extraction, replacing the reagent methods used. This review presents up-to-date information about traditional and promising methods of lithium recovery from natural solutions and solutions obtained during recycling of used batteries. The main attention is paid to membrane methods. Known approaches are classified and analyzed, experimental and theoretical aspects of Membrane Ion Separation are described, and known separation mechanisms and their mathematical models are discussed. Baro- and electromembrane methods relatively well developed at the laboratory level are considered, which are focused on the separation of lithium ions and other single-charged cations from mixed solutions containing large amounts of magnesium and calcium. The results of using commercial and laboratory membranes are compared. The newest approaches, which allow efficient separation of lithium ions from a mixture of single-charged cations, including the promising hybrid electrobaromembrane methods, are analyzed.
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