Lithium is valuable resource which is mainly used for batteries of electronic devices. Today, electronic device has become an indispensable part of daily life, and correspondingly demand for lithium has greatly increased that its supply has become an important issue. Shale gas produced water is a possible lithium supply as most of it contains high lithium concentration, with Marcellus shale gas produced water containing 95 mg/L of lithium on average. In this study, effect of organic compounds on lithium adsorption was observed using synthetic shale gas produced water with different Total Organic Carbon(TOC) concentrations or with different types of organic compounds. Competitive divalent cations were removed from the synthetic shale gas produced water using sodium carbonate prior to the lithium adsorption to minimize their interference in adsorption. Lithium adsorption was performed using H2TiO3 adsorbent for 24 hours, and the adsorbent was put in hydrochloric acid to observe the desorption capacity of lithium. As a result, produced water containing organic compounds showed lower adsorptive capacity than the produced water without organic compounds. The lithium adsorptive capacity was slightly different according to different TOC concentrations and types of organic compounds present in the produced water.

Influence of organic compounds on lithium adsorption in shale gas produced water

256th National Meeting (2018)

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