Ponente
Descripción
By 2040, at least 100 tonnes of isotopically pure lithium-6 will be required to fabricate breeder blankets for STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), the UK’s prototype fusion power plant. There is no currently established supply chain or large-scale lithium isotope enrichment plant to provide the needed quantities of lithium-6.
The industrially proven process for lithium-6 enrichment, COLEX (COLumn EXchange), requires massive quantities of liquid mercury that come with problematic handling issues, hazardous environmental and health implications. Alternative methods with similar separation performance such as liquid-liquid extraction have only been tested at a laboratory scale and lack trials for successful industrial-scale deployment.
This project aims to deliver a mercury-free liquid-liquid solvent extraction method using crown ethers to produce enriched lithium at the scale needed for breeder blanket manufacturing. The best-performing lithium enrichment liquid-liquid extraction system has been identified and the extraction conditions optimised.
Lithium-6 enrichment by liquid-liquid extraction has not been studied in detail and there is a poor understanding of the chemistry, making this research a valuable contribution to the field of liquid-liquid extraction, in addition to facilitating the deployment of fusion power plants.