Cases
Successful recovery of lithium and rare metals from salt lake, seawater, and waste.
With the cooperation of the national and local governments, we conduct research and investigations on resources, achieving the recovery of lithium and rare metals.
Case study
Recovery of Lithium from Salt Lake Brine
Lithium recovery project was conducted from the brine of the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, South America. In addition to lithium, we have succeeded in selectively recovering only lithium from brine, where high concentrations of sodium, magnesium, calcium and potassium coexist.
benchmark plant
Recovery of Lithium from Geothermal Water
Lithium recovery test was conducted from geothermal water returned from geothermal power plant in Japan. By decreeing the coexisting silica, we have succeeded in recovering lithium from the geothermal water.
Recovery of Lithium from Seawater
We have designed and built a pilot plant for the lithium recovery from seawater at the Institute of Ocean Energy of Saga University (IOES). Using the pilot plant, a demonstration test of lithium recovery from seawater in Imari Bay has been conducted.
Recovery of Lithium from Spent LIBs
In order to recycle lithium-ion batteries (LIB) for vehicles, we conducted tests for lithium recovery from thermally processed black mass obtained by disassembling waste LIBs. By thermally reducing the black mass, which contains coexisting metals such as cobalt, nickel, and copper, we successfully dissolved the generated lithium carbonate in water and separated and purified it using an adsorption method, ultimately recovering high-purity lithium carbonate.
We are researching the removal of arsenic and boron from groundwater.
In some regions, groundwater contains toxic elements such as arsenic and boron, and our top priority is to remove these toxic elements and provide safe water. Additionally, boron is a rare metal, and we are also working on the development of processes to produce boric acid from recovered boron.
