Mining valuable metals and elements from seawater: Overview of recent advances

Abstract

During the last two decades, advances in industrial ecol. (e.g. material flow anal.), water purifn. (e.g. desalination) and resource recovery have established that seawater and desalination plant brines are important and largely untapped sources of valuable metals and elements. In this presentation, I will give an overview of recent advances in seawater metal mining. Following the introduction, I will discuss the potential of oceans as sources of valuable metals and elements. I will then analyze the thermodn. and energy requirements of metal mining from seawater followed by an overview of recent work on the development of a new generation of sepn. materials, modules and systems for the selective extn. of valuable metals and elements from seawater and desalination brines. I will conclude my presentation by providing an outlook on the design and implementation of a model "Seawater Factory of the Future" that will integrate water prodn. with energy generation and resource recovery including metal mining.