Five 500 series cased peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions are enjoying an necessary role in a demonstration plant at Cornish Lithium’s Shallow Geothermal Test Site in the UK.
Originally built to test the idea of extracting lithium from geothermal waters, Cornish Lithium is now engaged on an upgraded version of the take a look at plant as its drilling program expands, finally with the aim of developing an environment friendly, sustainable and cost-effective lithium extraction supply chain.
The preliminary enquiry for pumps got here from GeoCubed, a joint venture between Cornish Lithium and Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL). GEL owns a deep borehole website at United Downs in Cornwall the place plans are in place to fee a £4 million ($5.2 million) pilot plant.
“GeoCubed’s course of engineers helped us to design and fee the take a look at plant ahead of the G7, which might run on shallow geothermal waters extracted from Cornish Lithium’s personal research boreholes,” Dr Rebecca Paisley, Exploration Geochemist at Cornish Lithium, said.
Adam Matthews, Exploration Geologist at Cornish Lithium, added: “Our shallow website centres on a borehole that we drilled in 2019. A particular 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 totally different parts of the take a look at plant, the primary of which extracts lithium from the waters by pumping the brine from a container up through a column containing a giant quantity of beads.
“ ราคาเพรสเชอร์เกจ have an lively ingredient on their floor that is selective for lithium,” Paisley explained. “As water is pumped through the column, lithium ions connect to the beads. With the lithium separated, we use two Watson-Marlow 530s to pump an acidic resolution in numerous concentrations by way of 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 however the tube comes into contact with the acid solution.”
She added: “We’re using the remaining 530 collection pumps to help perceive what different by-products we are able to make from the water. For instance, we can reuse the water for secondary processes in industry and agriculture. For this reason, we’ve two other columns working in unison to strip all different parts from the water as we pump it by way of.”
According to Matthews, circulate rate was among the primary causes for choosing Watson-Marlow pumps.
“The column wanted a move price of 1-2 litres per minute to fit with our check scale, so the 530 pumps had been best,” he says. “The different consideration was choosing between manual or automated pumps. At the time, as a end result of it was bench scale, we went for guide, as we knew it would be easy to make changes whereas we were nonetheless experimenting with course of parameters. However, any future industrial lithium extraction system would in fact reap the benefits of full automation.
Paisley added: “The great thing about having these 5 pumps is that we can use them to help evaluate different applied sciences moving ahead. Lithium extraction from the sort of waters we discover in Cornwall just isn’t undertaken wherever else on the planet on any scale – the water chemistry here is unique.
“It is basically necessary for us to undertake on-site test work with a wide selection of completely different corporations and applied sciences. We wish to devise the most environmentally responsible answer utilizing the optimum lithium restoration methodology, at the lowest potential operating value. Using local companies is part of our technique, particularly as continuity of supply is vital.”
To help fulfil the necessities of the subsequent test plant, Cornish Lithium has enquired after extra 530SN/R2 pumps from Watson-Marlow.
“We’ve additionally requested a quote for a Qdos one hundred twenty dosing pump from Watson-Marlow, so we can add a sure amount of acid into the system and achieve pH steadiness,” Matthews says. “We’ll be doing extra drilling within the coming 12 months, which can enable us to test our technology on multiple sites.”
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