Conversion of Lithium Carbonate
to Lithium Hydroxide
APPL I CAT I O N PA PE R DOCUMENT NUMBER
Introduction
The Electrical Vehicle (EV) market is undergoing a
revolution that is transforming the transportation
landscape using Lithium-Ion battery technology. The
demand for electrical vehicles is projected to increase
over five times the current 2022 production values
by 20301. To meet this challenge, high purity Lithium
Hydroxide and Lithium Carbonate are required as
essential materials to formulate these batteries.
The primary sources of Lithium are either brine lakes
(Salars) or mineral deposits of mostly Spodumene ore.
The Spodumene ore contains up to 6 % weight Lithium
and is extracted from the ground in conventional mining
operations that can be either underground pit excavation
or surface strip mining depending on the location of the
mineral lode.
Lithium Conversion
In many cases Lithium Carbonate may be produced that
is a lower quality then needed for EV batteries. It may
also be desirable to use high grade Lithium Hydroxide as
part of the cathode materials instead of the carbonate
form. Additionally, plants that are designed to produce
the lower quality Lithium Carbonate may be difficult to
modify to produce a high quality battery grade material
or lack resources such as fresh water needed in the
conversion. A number of plants currently produce the contaminant particulates. An ion-Exchange resin bed
Lithium Carbonate and then ship this material to plants is deployed to remove dissolved species and another
specially designed to convert the lower grade Lithium cartridge filter rated at 1 micron is used at location (3) to
Carbonate to a high quality battery grade Lithium prevent fine particulates from contaminating the final
Hydroxide with most of these currently found in China. product.
Lithium Hydroxide product is then separated from the
Process to Convert Lithium Carbonate liquid stream using a crystallizer. The solid Lithium
to Lithium Hydroxide Hydroxide product is collected typically using either
The Lithium Carbonate solution is converted to high a filter press or centrifuge coupled with a belt filter at
quality battery grade Lithium Hydroxide for use as an location (4). An improved method has been developed
essential component to make Lithium-Ion Batteries. The using automated regenerable cartridge filtration that
process for this conversion is illustrated in Figure 1. can replace the centrifuge, filter press and belt filter.
The first step is to convert the Lithium Carbonate The Lithium Hydroxide particles are rinsed using
solution into Lithium Hydroxide by adding hydrated deionized water to remove contaminants. A filter
lime (Ca (OH)2). This initiates the chemical conversion cartridge rated at 10 micron is used at location (5) to
into Lithium Hydroxide and solids are created in the protect the Reverse Osmosis Membrane System from
crystallizer step. The bulk solids are typically separated fouling prematurely. The rinsed solid particles are then
using either a filter pressor or a centrifuge coupled with dried using hot Nitrogen. Additional filters rated at 10-20
a belt filter at location (1). An improved method has micron are used for utility water at location (6).
been developed using automated regenerable cartridge To achieve battery grade final Lithium products, multiple
filtration that can replace the centrifuge, filter press and crystallization, re-dissolution and rinsing stages are
belt filter. often required that are not shown in this flow schematic
The collected Lithium Hydroxide is then re-dissolved by for simplicity. Also, the process depicted is based on
adding boiling water. Following this step at location (2), conventional operating plants and there are many new
filter cartridges rated at 1-5 micron are used to separate methods in development in this emerging industry.
Hydrated
Lime Boiling
(Ca(OH)2) Water
1 2
Lithium
Carbonate
Solution Lithium
Hydroxide
Solids
Lithium
Ion Exchange
Hydroxide
Crystallizer
Utility
Resin
Water
6
Hot Nitrogen
5 Drying
4 3
Reverse
Raw Osmosis
Water (RO)Rinse
Battery Lithium
Grade Hydroxide
Lithium Crystallizer
Hydroxide
Filter Filtration Value Separation Product
1 Collect Technical Grade Lithium Hydroxide Product Automated regenerative
cartridge
2 Protect Ion-Exchange (IX) resin and crystallizer from carryover solids 1 - 5 Micron Filter
3 Remove trace solids and Ion Exchange resin fines before crystallizer 1 Micron Filter
4 Collect Battery Grade Lithium Hydroxide Product Automated regenerative
cartridge
5 Protect RO filtration unit from fouling 10 Micron Filter
6 Removal of contaminant from raw water feed to RO & utility water for other uses 10 - 20 Mircon Filter
including flushing out equipment
Figure 1: Process to Convert Lithium Carbonate to Lithium Hydroxide
Material Purity Specifications Battery Grade LiOH-H2O (Lithium Hydroxide
Lithium-Ion batteries have strict purity requirements Monohydride) Purity Specs
for the materials used in their manufacture. Impurities
LiOH, wt% 56.5 min
can lead to poor charging performance including
reduced vehicle range of operation, more frequent need CO2, wt% 0.35 max
to charge, problems with batteries starting at colder max
CI, wt% 0.0020
temperature and in some extreme cases to the batteries
catching on fire. A major issue with the current Lithium SO4, wt% 0.010 max
conversion practice is reliable operation in producing max
Ca, wppm 15
the high-quality Lithium products. Battery grade purity
specs are provided in Table 1 for Lithium Hydroxide and Fe, wppm 5 max
Lithium Carbonate. For Lithium Carbonate the minimum
Na, wppm 20 max
purity requirement is 99.5 wt % and for Lithium
Hydroxide Monohydrate (LiOH-H2O) it is 56.5 wt% for AI, wppm 10 max
Lithium Hydroxide (LiOH) out of a theoretical maximum max
Cr, wppm 5
purity of 57.0 wt % (due to the water monohydrate
molecule). Cu, wppm 5 max
Improved filtration and separation can play an important K, wppm 10 max
role in improving both the process reliability for
Ni, wppm 10 max
producing consistent high purity products and also for
improving the product yields, reducing product re-work, Si, wppm 30 max
and reducing operation costs.
Zn, wppm 10 max
Heavy metals as Pb 10 max
Acid Insolubles, wt% 0.010 max
Table 1: Battery Grade Purity Specifications2
Typical applications
EV Battery Value Chain
The various stages in the Electric Battery (EV) value chain Base materials Active materials Battery cells
are given in Figure 2. For each segment, filtration and • Mining • Chemicals • Chemicals
• Material processing • Specialty chemicals • Specialty chemicals
separation play a vital role in meeting process goals for • Polymers
yield, purity, and reliability. For base materials, mining
• Nickel • Separator • Casing
and unique material processing are required for Nickel, • Lithium • Electrolyte • Filling
Cobalt and Aluminum as well as Lithium as described • Cobalt • Anode/cathode • Slurry
• Aluminium
in this paper. Active materials involve treating of
chemicals, specialty chemicals and polymers to make the
essential battery components consisting of the separator,
electrolyte, and anode/cathode. The battery cells also
Figure 2: Applications in the EV Battery Value Chain
use chemicals and specialty chemicals that must be
at rigorous purity levels for preparing the casing, filling
operations, and preparing slurries.
Pall Corporation is your partner for filtration and Dr. Thomas H. Wines is a Director at Pall Corporation’s
separation needs and has experience throughout the EV Application Development Team with over 35 years’
battery value chain. Pall has over 400 qualified Engineers experience in Separation Technologies. He is focused
on the Energy Market including Lithium-Ion Batteries,
and Scientists that can provide: prototype testing,
Upstream and Midstream Oil & Gas Processes,
on site pilot testing, best practice training, process
and Downstream Refining Operations. For more
optimization, audits, contaminant analysis, application information, Dr. Wines can be reached by email at
troubleshooting, validation services, presentations at tom_wines@[Link].
scientific forums, and journal publications.
References
1. Phillips, Piedmont Lithium Company Presentation (Nov 2020)
[Link]
2. [Link]
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