In the production of ternary precursors, sodium battery materials, lithium salt mother liquor, and battery recycling leachate, traditional processes like plate-and-frame filter presses, centrifuges, and evaporative concentration systems have long struggled with high energy consumption, crystal damage, lithium loss, batch inconsistency, and large footprint.
The Dongou Concentrator, powered by proprietary sintered UHMWPE filter elements, integrates solid-liquid separation, slurry thickening, and mother liquor recovery in a single unit. Recognized as a National First Major Technical Equipment, it is a core solution for concentration upgrading, energy savings, and cost reduction in lithium battery material production lines.
Core Principle: Pure Physical Separation & Concentration — No Filter Aid, Single-stage Filtration
The system operates in a fully enclosed, closed-loop process using sintered polymer filter elements as the core filtration media, driven by pressure differential for physical sieving separation:
- Synthetic slurry or lithium salt mother liquor enters the main vessel, where integrated stirring ensures homogeneous dispersion and prevents particle settling.
- High-pressure differential drives liquid through 0.2μm precision sintered filter elements — solids are completely retained, and filtrate is continuously discharged.
- As filtration progresses, slurry solids content steadily rises to the set concentration, then discharges as thickened slurry in a single batch.
- An integrated gas/liquid dual-mode online backwash periodically cleans the filter cake from the element surface, maintaining stable flux without decay.
- Clarified mother liquor enables recovery of ammonia and sodium sulfate, with clean water recycled back to the production line.
Sintered Polymer Filter Cartridge — Engineered for Hydrometallurgical Separation
Dongou UHMWPE sintered filter elements are manufactured through a proprietary sintering process and offer the following core advantages:
- Broad Chemical Resistance — Stable across pH 0–14, handling strong acids, alkalis, high-salt solutions, and organic solvents commonly found in lithium sulfate, lithium chloride, ternary precursor, and cobalt/nickel/manganese salt systems.
- Magnetic Impurity-Free — Manufactured from 100% metal-free polymeric material, these filter elements eliminate the risk of magnetic impurity introduction, meeting the stringent quality assurance standards demanded by leading manufacturers of precursor and lithium salt products. (See also: Titanium vs. Polymer Sintered Filters — a detailed comparison on magnetic impurity control.)
- Regenerable Design — Deep regeneration via gas/liquid backwash or chemical soaking achieves >95% efficiency without altering the material’s molecular structure. Capable of enduring high-pressure backwash and frequent regeneration cycles without fracture risk. Extended filter lifespan significantly reduces maintenance costs and consumable replacement frequency.
- Modular Integration — Filtration components and discharge units are factory-prefabricated as modules, enabling short on-site installation. Individual filter elements can be replaced independently without full-system shutdown.
Key Applications
- Ternary/Sodium Precursor — In-situ filtration and concentration of co-precipitation synthesis slurry, increasing solids content, while optimizing particle morphology and size distribution.
- Ore/Brine Lithium Extraction — Solid-liquid separation and high-concentration thickening of lithium sulfate and lithium chloride mother liquor, recovering lithium values.
- Battery Recycling — Filtration and concentration of spent battery acid leachate, recovering valuable metals and reducing downstream evaporation load;
- Lithium Salt Refining — Filtration of wash water and recovery of mother liquor in lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide production, enabling closed-loop water recycling;
- Fine Hydrometallurgy — Separation and concentration of cobalt, nickel, and manganese salt slurries for high-purity metal salt production.
Summary
As new energy industries push for cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and low-carbon production, traditional processes relying on high-temperature evaporation and multi-stage solid-liquid separation can no longer balance product quality, energy consumption, and resource recovery.
Dongou Concentrator, powered by room-temperature pure physical separation and concentration technology and backed by proprietary UHMWPE sintered filter elements, integrates filtration and thickening in a single unit — delivering four core values: energy savings, crystal protection, automated operation, and high resource recovery.
Whether for new battery material production lines or retrofitting existing concentration sections, it offers a proven solution for long-term economic returns and stable operation.
Dongou Filter · 40 Years of Polymer Sintered Filter Expertise