Lithium chloride produced at the company's LiSTR Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) plant in Arkansas was converted by Veolia Water Technologies at their facility in Plainfield, Illinois.
Concentrated lithium chloride solution, produced by Standard Lithium using resources from its Lanxess project in southern Arkansas, was sent to Veolia and then converted to lithium carbonate using a conventional flowsheet.
The processing involved additional concentration, chemical softening and purification, before initial conversion to solid lithium carbonate and then redissolution to a bicarbonate solution. The final stages were crystallisation, and the washing and drying of battery-quality lithium carbonate.
The company is also concurrently testing a conversion process using its own patent-pending SiFT technology at a pilot plant in British Columbia, Canada, with results of over 99.9% purity lithium carbonate reported last December.
Then, a LiCl solution shipped from Arkansas was concentrated further using reverse osmosis technology, and then converted at the company's SiFT pilot plant.
"We've now demonstrated that we can convert to battery quality lithium carbonate using the Company's SiFT technology; that we can get to the same end-product using established technology developed and sold by global OEMs," said Dr. Andy Robinson, president and COO of Standard Lithium., said of the more recent results
He added that the company is also planning to add battery quality lithium hydroxide to the product offering.
