PRODUCING METHOD OF GRANULATED BODY FOR LITHIUM ADSORPTION

Abstract

Provided is a producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption that allows sufficiently suppressing a manganese elution in an eluting step when producing lithium on a commercial basis.

A producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption includes a kneading step of kneading a powder of a lithium adsorbent precursor and a binder to obtain a kneaded product, a granulating step of granulating the kneaded product to obtain a 1.sup.st granulated body, and a sintering step of sintering the 1.sup.st granulated body to obtain a 2.sup.nd granulated body. The configuration allows a manganese valence contained in the lithium adsorbent precursor to change from 2 to 4, and thus allowing the suppressed manganese elution in the eluting step. Further, in production on a commercial basis, the lithium adsorbent can be used repeatedly. In addition, a manganese concentration in an eluent obtained in the eluting step can be suppressed, thus allowing loads in steps after the eluting step to be reduced.

Claims

1. A producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption, comprising: a kneading step of kneading a powder of a lithium adsorbent precursor and a binder to obtain a kneaded product; a granulating step of granulating the kneaded product to obtain a 1.sup.st granulated body; and a sintering step of sintering the 1.sup.st granulated body to obtain a 2.sup.nd granulated body.

2. The producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption according to claim 1, wherein a sintering temperature of the sintering step is 520? C. or more and 600? C. or less.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0010] FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption according to an embodiment of this invention.

[0011] FIG. 2 is a graph indicating a relation between a sintering temperature and a manganese elution amount.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0012] Hereinafter, the embodiment of the present invention is described based on the drawings. However, the following embodiment exemplifies the producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption for realization of the technical idea of the present invention, and thus the present invention does not intend to limit the producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption to the following method.

[0013] The producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption according to the present invention includes a kneading step of kneading a powder of a lithium adsorbent precursor and a binder to obtain a kneaded product, a granulating step of granulating the kneaded product to obtain a 1.sup.st granulated body, and a sintering step of sintering the 1.sup.st granulated body to obtain a 2.sup.nd granulated body.

[0014] In the producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption, since the sintering step of sintering the 1.sup.st granulated body is provided after the kneading step and the granulating step, a manganese valence contained in the lithium adsorbent precursor can be changed from 2 to 4. In the lithium adsorbent precursor, it has been believed that a divalent manganese would remain without becoming tetravalent, and the divalent manganese would elute in the eluting step. However, due to the sintering step being provided, most of the divalent manganese change to tetravalent manganese. The tetravalent manganese is less likely to dissolve in water, and thus the manganese elution in the eluting step can be suppressed. Therefore, in production on a commercial basis, the lithium adsorbent can be used repeatedly. In addition, by using the granulated body for lithium adsorption of this application in the eluting step, a manganese concentration in an eluent obtained in the eluting step can be suppressed, thus allowing loads in steps after the eluting step to be reduced.

[0015] Further, in the producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption according to the present invention, a sintering temperature of the sintering step is 520? C. or more and 600? C. or less. Since the sintering temperature of the sintering step is 520? C. or more and 600? C. or less, the divalent manganese can be further allowed to become the tetravalent manganese, allowing the manganese elution to be further suppressed.

Embodiment

(Lithium Adsorbent Precursor)

[0016] In the kneading step, a powder of the lithium adsorbent precursor and a binder are kneaded to obtain a kneaded product. The lithium adsorbent precursor used in the kneading step is described below. Note that FIG. 1 illustrates a flowchart of the producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption according to one embodiment of the present invention. The lithium adsorbent precursor is used in the kneading step.

[0017] The lithium adsorbent is not particularly limited as long as it selectively adsorbs lithium from a lithium-containing solution. Examples of the lithium adsorbent may include, for example, H.sub.1.6Mn.sub.1.6O.sub.4, H.sub.1.33Mn.sub.1.67O.sub.4, and the like obtained from lithium manganese oxide. The lithium adsorbent can be obtained by replacing Li with hydrogen in Li.sub.1.6Mn.sub.1.6O.sub.4 and Li.sub.1.33Mn.sub.1.67O.sub.4, which are the lithium adsorbent precursors, as shown in Formula 1 and 2.

[00001]$\begin{array}{cc}{\mathrm{Li}}_{1.6}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{1.6}{O}_4+1.6\mathrm{HCl}.fwdarw.H_{1.6}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{1.6}{O}_4+1.6\mathrm{LiCl}& \left[\mathrm{Formula}1\right]\end{array}$$\begin{array}{cc}{\mathrm{Li}}_{1.33}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{1.67}{O}_4+1.33\mathrm{HCl}.fwdarw.H_{1.33}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{1.67}{O}_4+1.33\mathrm{LiCl}& \left[\mathrm{Formula}2\right]\end{array}$

(Kneading Step)

[0018] FIG. 1 illustrates a flowchart of the producing method of lithium-containing solution according to one embodiment of the present invention. When realizing the producing method of obtaining lithium-containing solution containing lithium from the lithium adsorbent on a commercial basis, a method of making the lithium adsorbent into a granular form to be housed in a predetermined container, and passing an acid solution such as hydrochloric acid through the container is most appropriate. In this case, the lithium adsorbent precursor needs to be made into a granular form. The present invention relates to a producing method of obtaining granulated body for lithium adsorption from the lithium adsorbent precursor.

[0019] The producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption according to the embodiment includes a kneading step. In the kneading step, the powder of the lithium adsorbent precursor and the binder are kneaded to obtain the kneaded product. Here, examples of the binder may include: an inorganic binder, such as silica sol, alumina sol, zirconia sol, calcium oxide, silicon dioxide, calcium silicate, calcium sulfate, and calcium hydroxide; a clay-based binder, such as bentonite and kaolinite; a cellulose-based binder, such as carboxymethyl cellulose and hydroxyethyl cellulose; and a high-molecular binder, such as polyethylene glycol and polyethylene oxide. In this embodiment, alumina sol is preferably used. Alumina sol is a colloid solution of an alumina hydrate using water as a dispersion medium, and includes, for example, Cataloid AP-1 (JGC Catalysts and Chemicals Ltd.). A proportion of the lithium adsorbent precursor and the alumina sol is, for example, a weight ratio of 4:1. As a solvent, various kinds of aqueous solvents or organic solvents can be used.

(Granulating Step)

[0020] As illustrated in FIG. 1, in the granulating step, the kneaded product obtained in the kneading step is performed to obtain the 1.sup.st granulated body. Although a size of the 1.sup.st granulated body is not particularly limited, a granular body having a grain size of 0.5 mm or more and 2 mm or less is especially preferred. In a case where the 1.sup.st granulated body is a granular body having a grain size of 0.5 mm or more, when the container is filled with the adsorbent of the present invention and water is passed through the container, the grains are less likely to clog an inside of the container, and thus an increase of a pressure drop inside the container can be suppressed. In addition, while a case where a grain diameter is larger than 2 mm causes an adsorption speed of the lithium to slow down and an adsorption efficiency to decline, by making the grain diameter 2 mm or less, an adsorption performance can be improved. Example of the granulating step can employ an agitation and mixing granulation, a tumbling granulation, an extrusion granulation, a crushing granulation, a fluidized bed granulation, a spray-drying granulation (spray drying), or a compression granulation.

[0021] The grain size of the granulated body according to the embodiment can be confirmed to be in a determined range specifically by using a sieve having an aperture size corresponding to each grain size according to JIS Z 8801.

(Sintering Step)

[0022] As illustrated in FIG. 1, in the sintering step, the 1.sup.st granulated body obtained in the granulating step is sintered to obtain the 2.sup.nd granulated body. The 1.sup.st granulated body is sintered, for example, by being retained at a preliminarily determined temperature for a preliminarily determined time period in an electric furnace to become the 2.sup.nd granulated body.

[0023] The temperature is preferably 450? C. or more and 800? C. or less, and more preferably, 520? C. or more and 600? C. or less. A retention time is preferably 4 hours or more and 6 hours or less.

EXAMPLES

[0024] Hereinafter, specific examples of the producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption according to the present invention will be further described in detail, but the present invention is not limited by these examples.

Example 1

[0025] As the binder for granulating lithium manganese oxide that is the lithium adsorbent precursor, alumina sol (Cataloid AP-1 (JGC Catalysts and Chemicals Ltd.)) was used. The binder was kneaded with the powder of the lithium adsorbent precursor (Li.sub.1.6Mn.sub.1.6O.sub.4) so as to account for 20% of an overall weight (kneading step), and granulated to obtain the 1.sup.st granulated body (granulating step). The 1.sup.st granulated body was sintered for 5 hours at 450? C. using the electric furnace to obtain the 2.sup.nd granulated body, that is, the granulated body for lithium adsorption (sintering step). A glass column was loaded with the obtained 2.sup.nd granulated body, and after the lithium adsorbent precursor (Li.sub.1.6Mn.sub.1.6O.sub.4) was turned into the lithium adsorbent (H.sub.1.6Mn.sub.1.6O.sub.4), the adsorbing step and the eluting step were performed to obtain the lithium-containing solution. In Examples, an amount of manganese in the obtained lithium-containing solution was measured to confirm whether or not the amount of manganese was within a predetermined range. Specifically, in the eluting step, the acid solution passed through the column up to BV10 (BV is an abbreviation for Bed Volume, which is a unit representing how many times the volume of the acid solution that has passed through the column is the volume of the lithium adsorbent in the column), and then the manganese concentration of every BV1 was measured. A sum of the amount of manganese eluted from BV1 to BV10 was divided by a weight of the loaded granulated body to calculate a manganese elution amount per 1 gram of the granulated body. The manganese elution amount is shown in Table 1 and FIG. 2.

Example 2

[0026] Parameters in Example 2 are the same as those in Example 1 except that the temperature of the sintering step was set at 500? C. A manganese elution amount of Example 2 is shown in Table 1 and FIG. 2.

Example 3

[0027] Parameters in Example 3 are the same as those in Example 1 except that the temperature of the sintering step was set at 520? C. A manganese elution amount of Example 3 is shown in Table 1 and FIG. 2.

Example 4

[0028] Parameters in Example 4 are the same as those in Example 1 except that the temperature of the sintering step was set at 550? C. A manganese elution amount of Example 4 is shown in Table 1 and FIG. 2.

Example 5

[0029] Parameters in Example 5 are the same as those in Example 1 except that the temperature of the sintering step was set at 600? C. A manganese elution amount of Example 5 is shown in Table 1 and FIG. 2.

Example 6

[0030] Parameters in Example 6 are the same as those in Example 1 except that the temperature of the sintering step was set at 700? C. A manganese elution amount of Example 6 is shown in Table 1 and FIG. 2.

Example 7

[0031] Parameters in Example 7 are the same as those in Example 1 except that the temperature of the sintering step was set at 800? C. A manganese elution amount of Example 7 is shown in Table 1 and FIG. 2.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Sintering temperature ? C. 450 500 520 550 600 700 800 Manganese elution amount mg/g 10 8.5 7 6.4 6.6 7.9 10.1

[0032] As indicated in Table 1 and FIG. 2, since the producing method of granulated body for lithium adsorption includes the sintering step, the divalent manganese included in the lithium adsorbent precursor can be changed to a tetravalent manganese, and thus the manganese elution amount can be suppressed. The temperature of the sintering step is preferably 450? C. or more and 800? C. or less, and more preferably, 520? C. or more and 600? C. or less. The retention time can be understood to be preferably 4 hours or more and 6 hours or less.