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Conventional lithium production through solar evaporation is considered a time-consuming procedure, taking a substantial 12 to 18 months with significant environmental impacts such as aquifer depletion and damaging the basin's complex hydrological system. Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) has emerged as a promising alternative for lithium extraction from brines, offering reduced environmental impact. Although adsorption-type DLE with aluminium-based adsorbents is the sole commercial technology of DLE, a debate persists concerning its Technology Readiness Level (TRL), which challenges the prevailing notion that adsorption-type DLE undeniably reaches a TRL of 9. Within this narrative, we propose that adsorption is capable of attaining its highest potential TRL in lithium recovery from brines when three critical conditions are met: the presence of a certain level of salinity, a minimum lithium content in the brine, and a heat source to heat up the brine. In this account, an attempt has been made to elucidate the role of these three minimum criteria during adsorption-type DLE.
Boroumand et al. (Fri,) studied this question.