Five 500 series cased peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions are playing an essential function in an indication plant at Cornish Lithium’s Shallow Geothermal Test Site in the UK.
Originally constructed to test the idea of extracting lithium from geothermal waters, Cornish Lithium is now working on an upgraded version of the take a look at plant as its drilling program expands, in the end with the goal of developing an environment friendly, sustainable and cost-effective lithium extraction provide chain.
The initial enquiry for pumps got here from GeoCubed, a joint venture between Cornish Lithium and Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL). GEL owns a deep borehole site at United Downs in Cornwall where plans are in place to commission a £4 million ($5.2 million) pilot plant.
“GeoCubed’s process engineers helped us to design and fee the take a look at plant ahead of the G7, which would run on shallow geothermal waters extracted from Cornish Lithium’s own research boreholes,” Dr Rebecca Paisley, Exploration Geochemist at Cornish Lithium, mentioned.
Adam Matthews, Exploration Geologist at Cornish Lithium, added: “Our shallow web site centres on a borehole that we drilled in 2019. A special borehole pump [not Watson-Marlow] extracts the geothermal water [mildly saline, lithium-enriched water] and feeds into the demonstration processing plant.”
The 5 Watson-Marlow 530SN/R2 pumps serve two different components of the test plant, the first of which extracts lithium from the waters by pumping the brine from a container up by way of a column containing a massive quantity of beads.
“The beads have an energetic ingredient on their surface that is selective for lithium,” Paisley explained. “As water is pumped via the column, lithium ions connect to the beads. With the lithium separated, we use two Watson-Marlow 530s to pump an acidic resolution in varied concentrations through the column. The acid serves to take away lithium from the beads, which we then switch to a separate container.
“The pumps are peristaltic, so nothing but the tube comes into contact with the acid answer.”
She added: “We’re utilizing the remaining 530 sequence pumps to assist understand what other by-products we are able to make from the water. For instance, we are ready to reuse the water for secondary processes in business and agriculture. For this cause, we’ve two other columns working in unison to strip all other components from the water as we pump it through.”
According to Matthews, circulate fee was among the major causes for choosing Watson-Marlow pumps.
“The column wanted a circulate price of 1-2 litres per minute to suit with our take a look at scale, so the 530 pumps have been ideal,” he says. “The other consideration was choosing between handbook or automated pumps. At the time, as a result of it was bench scale, we went for guide, as we knew it will be simple to make changes whereas we have been still experimenting with process parameters. However, any future commercial lithium extraction system would after all reap the benefits of full automation.
Paisley added: “The wonderful factor about having these 5 pumps is that we will use them to assist consider different applied sciences shifting forward. Lithium extraction from the kind of waters we discover in Cornwall isn’t undertaken anyplace else on the planet on any scale – the water chemistry here is unique.
“It is basically necessary for us to undertake on-site check work with quite a lot of totally different firms and technologies. Hurry need to devise probably the most environmentally accountable solution utilizing the optimum lithium recovery methodology, at the lowest potential operating price. Using local corporations is part of our technique, significantly as continuity of provide is important.”
To assist fulfil the necessities of the next test plant, Cornish Lithium has enquired after extra 530SN/R2 pumps from Watson-Marlow.
“We’ve also requested a quote for a Qdos 120 dosing pump from Watson-Marlow, so we can add a certain quantity of acid into the system and obtain pH steadiness,” Matthews says. “We’ll be doing more drilling within the coming 12 months, which will allow us to check our technology on multiple websites.”
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