Five 500 series cased peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions are enjoying an important role in a demonstration plant at Cornish Lithium’s Shallow Geothermal Test Site within the UK.
Originally constructed to test the idea of extracting lithium from geothermal waters, Cornish Lithium is now engaged on an upgraded model of the take a look at plant as its drilling program expands, ultimately 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 course of engineers helped us to design and commission the test plant forward of the G7, which would run on shallow geothermal waters extracted from Cornish Lithium’s own analysis boreholes,” Dr Rebecca Paisley, Exploration Geochemist at Cornish Lithium, said.
Adam Matthews, Exploration Geologist at Cornish Lithium, added: “Our shallow web site 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 five Watson-Marlow 530SN/R2 pumps serve two 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 via a column containing numerous beads.
“The beads have an lively ingredient on their surface that is selective for lithium,” Paisley explained. “As water is pumped through the column, lithium ions attach to the beads. With the lithium separated, we use two Watson-Marlow 530s to pump an acidic answer in varied concentrations by way of the column. The acid serves to remove lithium from the beads, which we then transfer to a separate container.
“The pumps are peristaltic, so nothing however the tube comes into contact with the acid solution.”
She added: “We’re utilizing the remaining 530 sequence pumps to assist understand what other by-products we are in a position to make from the water. For instance, we can reuse the water for secondary processes in trade and agriculture. For this cause, we now have two other columns working in unison to strip all different elements from the water as we pump it through.”
According to Matthews, circulate rate was among the many primary reasons for choosing Watson-Marlow pumps.
“The column wanted a circulate price of 1-2 litres per minute to suit with our test scale, so the 530 pumps had been perfect,” he says. “The different consideration was choosing between handbook 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 straightforward to make changes whereas we were nonetheless experimenting with course of parameters. However, any future industrial lithium extraction system would in fact take advantage of full automation.
Paisley added: “The wonderful factor about having these 5 pumps is that we are ready to use them to assist evaluate different applied sciences moving forward. Lithium extraction from the sort of waters we discover in Cornwall just isn’t undertaken anywhere else in the world on any scale – the water chemistry right here is unique.
“It is actually important for us to undertake on-site test work with a wide range of totally different firms and technologies. We need to devise probably the most environmentally responsible solution utilizing the optimum lithium restoration technique, at the lowest possible operating cost. Using native corporations is part of our technique, notably as continuity of supply is significant.”
To help fulfil the requirements of the next take a look at plant, Cornish Lithium has enquired after extra 530SN/R2 pumps from Watson-Marlow.
“ เกจวัดแรงดันแบบแห้ง ’ve additionally requested a quote for a Qdos 120 dosing pump from Watson-Marlow, so we are able to add a particular amount of acid into the system and achieve pH balance,” Matthews says. “We’ll be doing more drilling in the coming 12 months, which can permit us to check our expertise on multiple sites.”
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