Lithium Recovery from Water Resources by Membrane and Adsorption Methods

7. Conclusion 
Lithium is one of the most demanded, rare elements 
with sufficient content in raw materials. It does not occur 
in nature in a free state and is found in more than 150 
minerals. The demand for Lithium is growing every year 
and is explained by the increase in demand for electric 
vehicles.
Currently, more than 60% of Lithium is mined from 
water sources, which include brines, seawater, and 
geothermal waters and contain 70-80% of the total world 
lithium reserves. 
Therefore, searching for ways to obtain Lithium from 
water sources suitable for producing lithium compounds is 
a serious and very urgent task. 
Many methods have been developed to extract lithium 
compounds from water resources, including precipitation, 
solvent extraction, selective membrane separation, liquid 
extraction, ion exchange adsorption, electrodialysis, etc. 
The most promising of them is the adsorption of ion 
sieves since it allows the extraction of Lithium from low-
concentration lithium solutions and high concentrations of 
other elements. The method is energy-saving and 
environmentally friendly. Lithium-ion sieves are selective 
adsorbents with high ion screening functionality. 
However, ion sieves have a relatively low ion 
exchange capacity, poor stability, and loss of sorbent. 
To solve this problem, a lot of scientific work is being 
done to improve the stability of sorbents, increase the 
absorption capacity and selectivity, and accelerate the 
sorption time. Many methods are used for this, including 
organo-chemical, synergistic, binding, and composites. But 
none of them allows industrialization of the lithium 
adsorption method. Therefore, the search for ways to 
improve the lithium adsorption method remains a difficult 
task. 

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Bakhodir Abdullayev
 
et al. / IJETT, 70(9), 319-329, 2022 
 
325 
Lithium adsorption recovery may be an alternative to 
meet future demand, energy sustainability, environmental 
protection, and circular economy.