Rare Earth Element Harvesting from Seawater RO Brine

Most Rare Earth Elements and other critical minerals used in the United States are imported from other nations. Reliance on foreign supply for this material constitutes an industrial and national security concern. Extracting these materials from seawater using marine energy creates a domestic source that decreases dependence on foreign suppliers and improves industrial supply chain resiliency. The overall objective of the proposed Phase I research is to identify and demonstrate promising technologies that can be used to extract critical minerals from seawater with the use of marine energy. We will develop a new method to extract Rare Earth Elements and evaluate technology developed by PNNL to extract other critical minerals. These will be integrated in a Critical Minerals Extraction system as an add-on to a marine powered seawater reverse osmosis system. Phase I will demonstrate a technology to extract Rare Earth Elements from seawater. Other extraction technologies will be evaluated for use with the Rare Earth Element extraction technology to extract critical minerals including uranium, vanadium, and lithium. A techno- economic analysis will be done to understand the economic and technical issues related to successfully developing a commercially viable Critical Minerals Extraction process using those technologies. A conceptual system level design will be developed for a prototype to be built and tested in Phase II.Using marine energy to harvest critical minerals from seawater is an environmentally friendly alternative to terrestrial mining and integrating such a system with a seawater desalination process improves the economics of providing fresh water by desalination. The Critical Mineral Extraction system will be a bolt-on addition to marine energy powered seawater reverse osmosis system. Co- production of critical minerals and fresh water is a highly effective use of marine energy resources, with each product stream enhancing the cost effectiveness of the other, which will increase the availability of freshwater for consumers and critical materials for manufacturers.