Fabrication and Characterization of Composite Membranes for the Concentration of Lithium Containing Solutions Using Forward Osmosis

Abstract

In this study, an energy and highly time efficient, cost effective, and scalable forward osmosis (FO) composite polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane is developed to concentrate lithium chloride recovered from naturally occurring geothermal brine resources. Dense thin robust defect‐free Kynar‐PVDF membranes are fabricated on porous PVDF hollow fiber supports. Various membrane fabrication parameters such as membrane thickness, coating solution concentration, cross‐linker concentration, and curing temperature are studied to develop a defect‐free dense membrane. Advanced characterization tools such as FIB‐SEM, Raman, FTIR spectroscopy, and XRD are used to study the surface and cross‐sectional morphology, chemistry of crosslinking, crystallinity and chemical structure of the dense PVDF membrane. FO is utilized to concentrate LiCl in the solution from 36 to 175 g L−1 with an average water transfer rate of 0.450 L m−2 h−1 (LMH) at 85 °C. Furthermore, the membrane showed stable performance for more than 550 h while maintaining the purity of the concentrated lithium chloride solution of >99.99 wt%. The results suggest that the FO‐based technology is an innovative, time and energy efficient approach compared to the conventional technologies for concentration of battery grade LiCl for application in lithium ion batteries and other clean energy technologies.