Patent ID: 9527753
Filing Date: 2016-12-27
CPC Classification: C01D,C01G,C01P,C22B

Claim Text:
1. A method for the preparation of zinc chloride from a geothermal brine solution, the method comprising the steps of: treating the geothermal brine to reduce both silica and iron content, thereby generating a depleted brine solution comprising lithium chloride; contacting the depleted brine solution and a sodium hydroxide solution in a reaction vessel to produce a solution comprising lithium hydroxide and a hydrochloric acid by-product stream, wherein said sodium hydroxide solution is prepared by electrolyzing sodium chloride in an electrochemical cell, said electrochemical cell comprising an anode, a cathode, and a semi-permeable membrane separating an anode chamber and a cathode chamber; contacting the solution comprising lithium hydroxide with carbon dioxide gas in a reaction vessel to produce a solution that includes lithium carbonate; separating a product stream from the reaction vessel to provide a lithium carbonate product and a lithium depleted brine stream; extracting zinc from the lithium depleted brine stream with a solid extraction media; recovering zinc from the solid extraction media to produce a zinc salt solution; contacting the zinc salt solution with an alkali metal hydroxide or alkaline earth hydroxide to produce a solid zinc hydroxide; recovering solid zinc hydroxide; dissolving the solid zinc hydroxide with hydrochloric acid to produce an aqueous zinc chloride solution; and evaporating water from the aqueous zinc chloride solution to produce a purified zinc chloride solid, said purified zinc chloride solid having a purity of at least about 99% by weight.