Investigation the lithium, boron and arsenic levels in Aegean region geothermal waters and selective seperation of these elements

Today, most of the energy need is met by fossil fuel based energy products. Decrease in current exhaustible fossil energy resources and environmental problems caused by some of these resources have brought forward the new and renevable energy resources. Thus, geothermal energy, being a resource which is renevable and environmental among these resources. Geothermal waters can be utilized due to their rich mineral contents among an energy resource. The recovery of these precious minerals, is a very important process. Boron which exists in geothermal water is required for some metabolic activities of plants, but if the concentration of boron is high, it leads to adverse effects. However, when recovered boron, it has widely used area in industries. Arsenic is also a big problem for environment. Its toxicity and health hazards caused cancer and etc. diseases, but when recovered it can used in medicine and dentistry. Lithium is an expensive and important element because of its diclining reserves. Lithium recovery from geothermal waters is important for industrial applications such as production of cell phones batteries and nuclear fusion. In this study, selective separation of boron, lithium and arsenic from geothermal water using together membrane filtration and ion exchange-method was aimed. Geothermal water samples used were obtained from SDS Enerji AŞ. A lab scale cross-flow flat-sheet membrane test unit (SEPA CF-II, GE) was used for membrane filtration of these elements from geothermal water. 4 different membranes membran (DL, CK, NF-90 and BW-XLE) are used in studies. After membrane studies, ion exchange studies starts. Boron and arsenic removal studies were performed by Diaion CRB-02 and ArsenXnp ion exchange resins respectively. Lithium recovery studies were carried out by using lithium selective inorganic adsorbent (λ-MnO2).