PROSPECTS FOR CREATING A FULL CYCLE OF LITHIUM PRODUCTION IN KAZAKHSTAN – FROM ORE PROCESSING TO LITHIUM BATTERIES
Authors:   Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Chief Scientific Researcher, D.V. Sokol’skii Institute of Fuel, Catalysis and Electrochemistry, Almaty, Kazakhstan, bigauhar@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8243-1124, Bishimbayeva Gaukhar Kozykeevna,  , Zhumabayeva Dinara Sarsenovna,  ,   Doctor of Engineering, PhD, Senior Researcher, D.V. Sokol’skii Institute of Fuel, Catalysis and Electrochemistry, Almaty, Kazakhstan, d.zhumabayeva@ifce.kz, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6843-1056 (author for correspondence), Zhanabaeva Asem Kaldybekkyzy,  ,   PhD student of Kazakh-British Technical University, Engineer, D.V. Sokol’skii Institute of Fuel, Catalysis and Electrochemistry, Almaty, Kazakhstan, a.k.zhanabaeva@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4738-9012, Nalibayeva Arailym Muratovna,  ,   Scientific Researcher, D.V. Sokol’skii Institute of Fuel, Catalysis and Electrochemistry, Almaty, Kazakhstan, aray77@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3976-5134, Abdikalykov Yerlan Nurzhanuly,  ,   Undergraduate of al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Engineer, D.V. Sokol’skii Institute of Fuel, Catalysis and Electrochemistry, Almaty, Kazakhstan, abdikalykov.yerlan@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0502-942X, Bakenov Zhumabay Bekbolatovich,  ,   Doctor of Engineering, PhD, Professor, Nazarbayev University, Director of CEAMS, National Laboratory Astana, CEO at Institute of Batteries LLC, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, zbakenov@nu.edu.kz, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2781-4955
Published: October 2020

Today, lithium is becoming a new strategic material capable of influencing the sustainable development of the world economy. The results of developments in the production of innovative electrode materials from lithium carbonate on the basis of domestic lithium-containing raw materials with the creation of a full cycle of the technological line of lithium production: from ores to modern lithium batteries are pesented. Analysis of the explored reserves, mineral and material composition of domestic spodumene raw materials and lithium-containing dumps of the Belogorsk GOK indicate the prospects and expediency of their development for the production of the ever-increasing needs of the world market for lithium materials. As a result, the sulfuric acid technology for obtaining high-grade lithium carbonate directly from spodumene was optimized, bypassing the stage of obtaining a technical grade product, in a single technological process for processing spodumene with a reduction in the number of technological operations, excluding the expensive operation of concentrating a lithium sulfate solution by stripping. An efficient technology of purification and post-treatment of technical lithium carbonate to battery quality of 99.95% has been developed, including the processes of causticization of technical lithium carbonate, ultrafiltration and ion-exchange sorption of a solution of lithium hydroxide, followed by precipitation of lithium carbonate by ammonium carbonate. Cathode materials - lithium iron-phosphate , obtained from high-purity lithium carbonate by aerosol pyrolysis (MAP) and the sol-gel method (SGM), showed good electrochemical characteristics. The end result is innovative electrode materials for modern LIBs with significantly increased capacity and stability. The practical implementation of a full cycle of technologies from lithium-containing raw materials to modern lithium batteries opens up prospects for the creation in Kazakhstan of a high-tech lithium cluster according to the Scheme: Spodumene ores → Lithium concentrate → Lithium carbonate → Lithium cathode materials → Batteries.