Shale gas can be produced by hydraulic fracturing that requires a massive amount of highly pressurized fluid injected into the shale layer. After injection, the water referred to as the produced water flows back to the surface. The produced water has a large number of inorganic compounds originating from the shale layer formation water and organic compounds from the additives in the fracturing fluid. It includes many lithium ions that can be widely used in many industrial applications.  In this research, in order to investigate the effect of organic compounds on lithium recovery, a solvent extraction method was tested for the synthetically produced water solutions containing different amounts of organic materials. Two steps in the solvent extraction process were applied. In the first step, di (2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) as a solvent was used to remove divalent cations and in the second step, D2EHPA and the addition of tri-butyl phosphate were used to increase the extraction efficiency of the lithium.<br/>The experimental results show that the existence of organic matter caused as negative impact on lithium recovery and the recovery rate decreased with increasing concentrations of organic compounds.

Lithium recovery from shale gas produced water including organic compounds by solvent extraction methods

256th National Meeting (2018)

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