Toward CO₂ utilization: Gas–liquid reactive crystallization of lithium carbonate in concentrated KOH solution

ABSTRACT

Utilization of carbon dioxide, such as carbonation and mineralization, can reduce the emission of the greenhouse gases and help produce other high added-value products. In this work, CO₂ is utilized for carbonation of lithium hydroxide in concentrated KOH solution to produce lithium carbonate. The effect of temperature on carbonation rate and particle size distribution is investigated. Both the CO₂ apparent absorption rate and the Li₂CO₃ crystallization rate are calculated to determine the effect of crystallization on the CO₂ absorption. Products obtained during carbonation process are characterized as lithium carbonate with no impurity and high crystallinity. The maximum carbonate rate reaches approximately 83% at 90°C. It is concluded that carbonation process is a promising technique for both utilization of CO₂ and recovery of lithium present in strong alkaline solutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Carbon utilization
• crystallization
• lithium carbonate
• strong alkaline solution

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China No. [2018YFB0605703] and National Nature Science Foundation of China No. [51574126].