Draft:Ocean Miner
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Last edited by Steveandsmith (talk | contribs) 1 second ago. (Update) |
OCEAN MINER 26 Dec 24
The ocean contains most of the more valuable elements, although in amounts sufficiently dilute that no practical means of commercial extraction and concentration has been known.
Until now.
The needed energy associated with the concentrating of a dilute solution is in-theory very little; the required energy should cost only pennies for even the most dilute element-of-interest. So, the barrier has not-so-much been that it was impractical but rather that no one could see how to do it as easily as Mother Nature allowed.
The technology of Ocean Miner was developed to address this need.
After several annual iterations of field trials, the latest test gave concentration-factors over that of the open ocean for these representative elements:
Element
(As the oxide) Measured Natural Concentration factor Chromium 300 PPM 300 PPB 1000 X Manganese 230 PPM 200 PPB 1150 X Nickel 130 PPM 560 PPB 430 X Gallium 30 PPM 30 PPB 1000X Strontium 10,600 PPM 7.9 PPM about 1300X; known ore body nearby Lutetium 970 PPM 0.15 PPT about 8,000,000,000 X Indicates hitherto unknown ore body nearby
Currently, there is no known lower limit to the dilution from which elements can be recovered with this new Ocean Mining technology.
Supporting data is available upon request, including measurements of the various elements found, and suggested possible business-models for capitalizing on the technology. Core applications include commercial element extraction directly from sea-water and oceanic/river prospecting for mineral deposits. Additional applications may include Rare-Earth extraction from coal and other land-based sources without the onerous physical and permitting processes of conventional land-based mining.
The idea of ocean-mining for valuable metals is not new, but there are considerable ecological liabilities with the existing method of scraping-the-sea-bed, as discussed in the September 2023 issue of Scientific American.
This new Ocean Miner technology does not disturb oceanic ecosystems.
The first trials of Ocean Miner were in a passive installation with water-flow provided entirely by existing tidal current action. Further field tests and laboratory-development work are ongoing.
In production, the major operating costs are expected to be the usual costs associated with maintaining equipment in a salt-water-environment; the harvesting costs are not large and personnel are not required to be continuously present for operation. Ocean Miner technology could provide an additional profit center for off-shore wind farms.
The low-energy operating basis relies on selective molecular sieves to discriminate among the various elements of interest.
The underlying science was developed in 2007-8 to address clean-up of the contaminated land at the Nuclear Test Site in Southern Nevada. It was adapted for ocean mining in 2021-22.