MATERIALS MODIFICATIONS INC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: C54-08a

Description

Critical Minerals and Materials (CMMs) are essential for functioning clean energy technologies. The demand for CMMs is expected to significantly increase with progress in solar, wind, and battery storage technologies. The United States relies on recovering CMMs from unconventional sources like produced water from the oil and gas industry to achieve sustainable domestic production of CMMs. Lithium is a critical mineral that finds applications in Li-ion batteries, thermonuclear fusion reactors, CO2 adsorbents, glass production, and medical products. Lithium can be recovered from oil and gas-produced water using Li recovery technologies such as adsorbents, membrane-based processes, solvent extraction, and electrolysis-based systems. Produced water, a by-product of the oil and gas industry, typically contains salts, oil, grease, and various inorganic and organic chemicals. The produced water contains, on average, about 95 mg/L of lithium. Lithium will be selectively recovered from the produced water using a solvent extraction process in this proposed Phase I effort. In the liquid-liquid extraction process, selective functionalized ionic liquids will be used as solvents. The extraction behavior will be analyzed using various parameters such as produced water dilution, acidity, temperature, ionic liquid type, and cosolvents. The extraction efficiencies obtained in ionic liquids will be compared with the traditional solvent used in metal ion extraction. In addition, the efficiency of lithium from the ionic liquid and the recyclability of the ionic liquid will be studied in the proposed effort. The overall goal of the proposed Phase I project is to transition produced water from a Liability into an Asset by extracting valuable minerals like lithium using a solvent extraction process. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: Lithium recovered from the produced water is a critical raw material used in several applications, including, Li-ion batteries, thermonuclear fusion reactors, CO2 adsorbents, glass production, medical products, and materials such as plastic and grease. This project will demonstrate that produced water from the oil and gas industry could be an unconventional source for sustainable domestic production of critical minerals and materials,