Efficient Lithium extraction

Lithium is a metal that is widely used to power many modern electronics. A large portion of Lithium that is available in nature is stored in pools of salty water (i.e brine deposits). Current methods of extracting Lithium from such a liquid solution is quite expensive and inefficient. In this project, in collaboration with ProcESS - KU Leuven, a Lithium extraction process was optimized using selective electrodialysis. As part of this project, I setup the data collection protocol using Design of Experiments and performed data analysis to model the relationship between the different operating parameter of the electrodialysis setup and the percentage of Lithium that was extracted. This allowed us to better understand the capabilities of the electrodialysis system and the commercially available separation membrane that was used. Further, using the mathematical model that was fit on the collected data, I was able to identify the ideal settings for each operating parameters which led to high yield in Lithium extraction while keeping power consumption levels within reasonable limits. The results from this successful project can be found in this published paper.