Sorption and ion exchange have been examined as suitable direct lithium extraction (DLE) techniques. For the DLE technique, sorbents are needed that selectively bind lithium. Commercially available sorbents, however, have advantages and disadvantages in different processing lines and in dependence on the physicochemical parameters during extraction. In the joint UnLimited project, different sorbents beyond Mn-oxide are tested at lab scale, i.e., zeolite and Li-Fe-phosphate.
These materials are commercially available and can sorb lithium, generally However, different challenges arise for the application in a DLE process, which are currently being researched in the laboratory by the project partner KIT. In this regard, a new study from KIT on the potential of zeolite 13X will be published soon.