5. Conclusions and Future Outlook
Lithium has quickly gained the status of being the vital building block of greener
energy storage systems in the recent decade [
110
]. Lithium utilization in lithium batteries
(LIBs), electric car batteries, energy storage grid systems, and related industrial manufac-
turing processes has grown exponentially over the past few years, causing major concern
for the global community in terms of its prompt availability. However, the conventional
technologies available for lithium extraction are either energy-intensive or time-consuming.
Additionally, the extensive chemical usage makes these processes environmentally un-
friendly. As a result, the development of new Li extraction methods as well as the evolution
of old technologies is gaining tremendous attention worldwide. As discussed in this re-
view, membrane technologies have successfully been attempted for lithium extraction and
recycling from seawater brines and LIBs, respectively. Lithium harvesting using nanos-
tructured membranes have the advantages of low operational cost, excellent separation
efficiency, selectivity, and permeability. Furthermore, membranes result in a more environ-
mentally friendly separation procedure. Despite these benefits, membrane technologies
have succumbed to their own disadvantages. Among the disadvantages of membrane
technologies are membrane fouling, membrane lifetime, and challenges for scaling up oper-
ations. Furthermore, stability has proven a great challenge, requiring future development
in order to overcome poor hydro and chemical stability of membranes. Researchers are
working to thoroughly address the shortcomings of these novel membrane technologies in
improving its structural stability and industrial scalability. Furthermore, the optimization
of existing processes and designing new membranes with improved selectivity and stability
has gained much attention. The incorporation of nanofillers such as MOF materials that
have tuneable framework architecture and chemical tunability can be further explored as
they provide rich opportunities for creating an internal continuous ion-transport channel.
To improve lithium selectivity, a thorough understanding of the extraction mechanism
through model development is required. Further, the interaction of lithium ions with
different membrane support materials must be investigated. Relevant models must also
be developed to visualize the internal pore structures of different membrane supports
and incorporate the lithium-ion diffusion characteristics to help and improve the lithium
permeability. The dynamic membrane fouling behaviour should be investigated and
suitable anti-fouling agents must be designed to prevent fouling in a continuous operation.
Different structural modules can be generated to improve the process scalability while
maintaining process optimization.
In this work, we reviewed and compared methodologies developed recently for
lithium extraction and recycling from the most abundant primary and secondary lithium
resources (continental bines and LIBs), and also shared our prospects of using membrane
technology as a promising alternative to replace conventional methods.
Membranes
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