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Adsorption Behavior of Lithium from Seawater using Manganese Oxide Adsorbent

Takaaki WAJIMA, Kenzo MUNAKATA and Tatsuhiko UDA¹⁾

Graduate School of Engineering and Resource Science, Akita University, 1-1 Tegata-gakuen-cho, Akita 010-8502, Japan

1)

National Institute of Fusion Science, 322-6 Oroshi-cho, Toki, Gifu 509-5292, Japan

(Received 22 November 2011 / Accepted 13 February 2012 / Published 15 March 2012)

Abstract

The deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reactor system is expected to provide the main source of electricity in the future. Large amounts of lithium will be required, dependent on the reactor design concept, and alternative resources should be found to provide lithium inventories for nuclear fusion plants. Seawater has recently become an attractive source of this element and the separation and recovery of lithium from seawater by co-precipitation, solvent extraction and adsorption have been investigated. Amongst these techniques, the adsorption method is suitable for recovery of lithium from seawater, because certain inorganic ion-exchange materials, especially spinel-type manganese oxides, show extremely high selectivity for the lithium ion. In this study, we prepared a lithium adsorbent (HMn₂O₄) by elution of spinel-type lithium di-manganese-tetra-oxide (LiMn₂O₄) and examined the kinetics of the adsorbent for lithium ions in seawater using a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The intermediate, LiMn₂O₄, can be synthesized from LiOH·H₂O and Mn₃O₄, from which the lithium adsorbent can subsequently be prepared via acid treatment., The adsorption kinetics become faster and the amount of lithium adsorbed on the adsorbent increases with increasing solution temperature. The thermodynamic values, ΔG⁰, ΔH⁰ and ΔS⁰, indicate that adsorption is an endothermic and spontaneous process.

Copyright (c) 2012 The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research

Keywords

lithium recovery, seawater, adsorption, manganese dioxide, kinetics of lithium adsorption in seawater, pseudo-second-kinetic model

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.7.2405021

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This paper may be cited as follows:

Takaaki WAJIMA, Kenzo MUNAKATA and Tatsuhiko UDA, Plasma Fusion Res. 7, 2405021 (2012).