In September 2023, EBNER receives an order from a customer in Germany for a plant for the evaporation and crystallisation of salts. The plant will form part of a modern pilot plant in which the customer itself is developing new processes for industry.

Due to the increased interest in more efficient processes for the extraction of Lithium-salts in the context of battery production, the plant was designed to evaporate Lithium-solutions and crystallise all common Lithium salts. The plant can be controlled in such a way that, in addition to the fine adjustment of individual parameters and thus a high degree of adjustability of the properties of the Lithium products, the hydration of the individual salts can also be adjusted. Among others, the following salts can be crystallised:

Lithium hydroxide – LiOH or LiOH x 1H20

Lithium carbonate – Li2C03

Lithium chloride – LiCl and its hydrations

Lithium bromide – LiBr

Lithium sulfate – Li2SO4 and its hydrations

and others

The challenge with this plant was above all the right choice of materials to be used. After all, very high purities of the products are necessary to serve as adequate reactants for further process steps. Corrosion, even to the slightest degree, therefore had to be ruled out from the outset. However, through appropriate consultations with suppliers and material corrosion tests, suitable material combinations could be found.

The system is built in a skid design and can therefore be completed as a finished unit at EBNER and ultimately put into operation at the customer’s site by means of simple plug and play.