PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15875267
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2018-05
Patent Classification: ["423", "179500"]

Abstract:
A process ( 10 ) for the treatment of a lithium containing material, the process comprising the steps of: (i) Preparing a process solution from the lithium containing material ( 12 ); (ii) Passing the process solution from step (i) to a series of impurity removal steps ( 36 ) thereby providing a substantially purified lithium chloride solution; and (iii) Passing the purified lithium chloride solution of step (ii) to an electrolysis step ( 70 ) thereby producing a lithium hydroxide solution.

Claim (Index 1):
A process for treatment of a lithium containing material, the process comprising the steps of:\n (i) passing a lithium containing material to a leach step comprising a first leach stage and second leach stage in which said lithium containing material is leached with hydrochloric acid to produce a pregnant leach solution; (ii) passing said pregnant leach solution to a thickening step comprising a first thickening stage coupled subsequent to the first leach stage and a second thickening stage coupled subsequent to the second leach stage and subsequently pyrohydrolysing an overflow from said first thickening stage and an overflow from said second thickening stage, thereby converting any chlorides of aluminum and iron into insoluble oxides, removing same, and recovering residual hydrochloric acid that is utilized in the leach step (i); (iii) passing said pregnant leach solution from step (ii) to a series of impurity removal steps thereby providing a substantially purified lithium chloride solution; (iv) passing the purified lithium chloride solution of step (iii) to an electrolysis step in which lithium chloride and added water are consumed thereby producing a lithium hydroxide solution, chlorine, and hydrogen; (v) combining chlorine and hydrogen produced in the electrolysis step (iv) to produce hydrochloric acid that is utilized in the leach step (i); and (vi) carbonating the lithium hydroxide solution produced in step (iv) by passing compressed carbon dioxide there through, thereby producing a lithium carbonate precipitate, or\n b) wherein the lithium hydroxide solution produced in step (iv) is thickened by evaporation of water to provide lithium hydroxide monohydrate crystals, or \n c) a portion of the lithium hydroxide solution is carbonated to produce a lithium carbonate precipitate, and another portion is thickened by evaporation of water to provide lithium hydroxide monohydrate crystals; \n wherein the lithium containing material is an alpha-spodumene ore or ore concentrate and the process further comprises a first step in which that alpha-spodumene ore or ore concentrate is calcined to produce beta-spodumene; and wherein an underflow from said first thickening stage is passed to said second leach stage.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 50.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.20455
- Patent Class: 423.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15514688', '14950153', '14378175', '13462698', '12991848']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7686798728504344
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.523016961579493
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7441135817233403
- Mean Citation Score: 248.180288
- Max Citation Score: 319.18613
- Similarity Product: 236.6375966867089

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 0
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test