Modeling Lithium Adsorption in Column Chromatography Applications With Granulated Li/Al-Layered Double Hydroxide Chlorides: A Lattice Boltzmann Modeling Approach

Given the crucial role of lithium (Li) in clean energy transition through effective decarbonization of various energy sectors, enhancing and diversifying the source of Li is regarded as an urgent priority. Producing Li from formation brines is a promising solution due to their abundant resources and environmental friendlessness to extract. In this study, we focus on Li extraction with an ion-sieve method utilizing Li/aluminum-layered double hydroxide chlorides (Li/Al-LDH), by its significant stability, great scalability, and favorable techno-economic feasibility. In this regard, we set our goal to numerically quantify the adsorption performance of granulated Li/Al-LDH adsorbent for Li⁺ by quantitatively analyzing the impacts of controlling factors. To achieve the goal, we develop our numerical capability of addressing brine injection, fluid flow, component transport, and adsorption in column chromatography application, based on lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) modeling. To quantify the impact of operational conditions of Li⁺ adsorption performance with granulated Li/Al-LDH adsorbent, various values of porosity and radius of granule, Li⁺ concentration in injected brine, and brine injection velocity are considered. From the numerical simulations and coupled local sensitivity analysis, the radius of the adsorbent granule is found to be most influential on the adsorption performance, followed by granule porosity, concentration of Li⁺ in injected brine, and injection velocity. This study provides the conceptual and essential information on the quantified impact of various operational conditions on Li⁺ adsorption performance that can be used to optimize the design of Li/Al-LDH adsorbent granule and column chromatography strategy, as achieving the techno-economically feasible Li⁺ extraction from formation brines.