Recent advances in lithium extraction from salt lake brine using coupled and tandem technologies

It is important to develop methods for efficient extraction of lithium from salt lake brine. However, the traditional lithium-extraction technology has various limitations, which make it difficult to increase its efficiency. Hence, it is highly important to explore new processes for lithium extraction. This paper systematically reviews the recent research on various coupled and tandem lithium-extraction technologies based on traditional lithium-extraction technology for extracting lithium from salt lake brine. When different technologies are coupled, their advantages aggregate, while their disadvantages become weaker, which, in turn, improves the lithium-extraction efficiency and makes the whole process simpler and environmentally friendly, with reduced energy consumption. For emerging coupling/tandem processes, the characteristics, applicability, and energy consumption of each method are analyzed based on the principle, characteristics, and performance of each technology. This review also discusses the direction that the future development of the process should take, according to the current development level of the process. Most of the discussed methods have completed laboratory-scale testing. Hence, future research should focus on pilot-scale development and optimization of the parameters and process involved. The cross-fusion and synergy of different methods provide ideas and references for better development and application of lithium-extraction processes. This paper systematically reviews the recent research on coupled and tandem lithium-extraction technologies beyond traditional methods for extracting lithium from salt lake brine, and also discusses the direction that the future development of the emerging technologies. • Recent research on coupled and tandem lithium-extraction technologies is reviewed. • The methods were developed based on traditional lithium-extraction technology from brine. • Coupling aggregated their advantages and complemented their disadvantages. • Coupling made the process efficient and environmentally friendly. • Future research should focus on pilot-scale development and optimization of methods.