Novel process for the extraction of lithium carbonate from spent lithium-containing aluminum electrolytes by leaching with aluminum nitrate and nitric acid

A hydrometallurgical process was developed to extract lithium from a spent lithium-containing aluminum electrolyte, reduce the stacking of spent aluminum electrolyte, and recover the valuable elements. In this study, we extracted lithium from an electrolyte using the following three steps: 1) leaching with HNO 3  − Al(NO 3 ) 3 , 2) neutralizing the leachate obtained in the first step, and 3) precipitating the lithium carbonate. A lithium extraction efficiency of 88.0% could be achieved after a leaching time of 6 h, at a leaching temperature of 80 °C and an Al/F molar ratio of 1:6. During the process of neutralization, Al 3+ and F − was precipitated as Al 2 ((OH) 0.46 F 0.54 ) 6 (H 2 O). The obtained Li 2 CO 3 with a high purity of 98.8%.