Development of Floating System for Recovery of Lithium From Seawater

In the study, a floating system for recovery of lithium from seawater was presented. The floating system consists of adsorbent tanks with double hull and double bottom structures. Several key technologies are developed for the system, such as non-return valve, adsorbent tank, swash bulkheads in adsorbent tanks, double hull structures with inlet holes on inner bottom and ballast tanks in side hulls. Seawater flows into double bottom structures from suction holes on the bilge, then flows into the adsorbent tanks through the non-return valves on inner bottom, and passes through the piled adsorbent. Finally seawater is discharged out of the adsorbent tanks from drain holes on the sheer strake by drain pumps. A floating tank integrated with the key technologies was modeled and the model test was carried out at sea. In addition, an economic assessment on the system has been made. The study results demonstrate that the proposed floating system is promising and the system technologies are reliable.