Zabuye salt lake is located in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau, China. With its brine rich in mineral resources, the lake is of great economic value. Those resources can be effectively exploited using solar pond technology. As a foundation for solar pond technology, evaporation experiments on salt lake brine were conducted in this study. An isothermal evaporation experiment was carried out at 273 K on the winter brine from Zabuye salt lake. According to the experiment, the crystallization path of salts has been obtained, and the precipitation sequence during 273 K isothermal evaporation was halite (NaCl), mirabilite (Na₂SO₄·10H₂O), borax (Na₂B₄O₇·10H₂O), natron (Na₂CO₃·10H₂O), sylvite (KCl), and zabuyelite (Li₂CO₃), which is different from that of the metastable phase diagram of the quinary system Na⁺, K⁺//Cl^-, CO₃^2-, SO₄^2-—H₂O at 298 K. In the experiment, lithium was enriched effectively in the brine, with its concentration up to 3.66 times compared with that of the original brine. Potassium precipitated as sylvite in the late stage of the evaporation process, and the content of potash reached 17.13% in solid phases. Although borax precipitated during the whole evaporation process, high grade borax cannot be obtained in the experiment. The data of the isothermal evaporation experiment at 273 K can be used as the foundation to exploit the Zabuye salt lake brine resources.

Zabuye salt lake  /  273 K isothermal evaporation  /  crystallization path  /  carbonate type brine  /  lithium carbonate