The world is on the brink of the new “gold rush”. With the exception of this time, the two countries rush to control the minerals required for solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. Instead of continuing to dig tunnels or drilling, some scientists look forward to a promising source of minerals – but it represents a challenge – which has been inscribed for decades: sea water.
The ocean holds much more than just water and salt. To a large extent, each element can be found naturally on the periodic table in sea water, from gold and silver to Lithiumand CobaltAnd Nickel.
The problem? For most date, these minerals were far -reaching, because they are so low levels that it is difficult even to wrap your head.
Imagine the Olympic swimming pool filled with sea water. If you will separate all the elements, you will leave you about half a kilogram of lithium, 1.2 grams of nickel, 3 milligrams of cobalt, and similar small amounts of other desired minerals. Although this may not seem much, the world’s oceans contain about 534 trillion of Olympic swimming pools. Therefore, although there may be much, for example, cobalt in this hypothetical complex of sea water, there is a lot of cobalt in the actual seas. In fact, the ocean contains 46 times more than all land reserves in the world combined.
“When you hit it with this huge size of the sea on the planet – this is a huge golden mine,” said Scott Edmondson, a research scientist at the northwestern Pacific Laboratory for the northwestern Passevik experience. “There is a golden mine, literally in the coastal line.”
Nearly a century ago, scientists have been trying to benefit from the mineral stores in the ocean – perhaps nothing more famous than German chemist Fritz Haber. Haber began his career as an ideal young scientist, determined to use chemistry to save the world from starvation. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he invented a way to withdraw the main component of fertilizers from thin air – a technique that allowed farmers to grow enough food to save the life of an estimated 3.5 billion hunger. But when the World War broke out, Haber’s story took a dark turn. Its fertilizer’s fertilizer is re -renewed to make chemical weapons for Germans instead.
German chemist Fritz Haber has developed an innovative technology to pull the main component of fertilizers from the air. Later, he rarely turned his attention towards the development of chemical weapons for Germany during World War I. After the war, Haber (the third of the left) tried gold from sea water. The archives of the Max Blanc Association, Berlin
After Germany lost the war, the country was in a state of chaos, full of war debts. Haber – who is now avoiding the scientific community – decided to transform its efforts towards saving his country’s economy. Haber knew that the oceans were full of gold. It surpasses a plan to extract it. Edmondson said: “The legend is that he had this chemistry laboratory in the lining of the ocean across the Atlantic, going back and forth and doing the chemistry of sea water.” “Technically succeeded.”
Haber’s invention was able to get gold out of the sea. The problem was that it was very ineffective: it turned out that gold was 1000 times less than what was expected. This means that the gold he extracted was not valuable enough to cover the costs of operating its machines.
While the seawater mining plan in Haber failed amazingly, the dream of extracting minerals from the ocean lives. For example, over the following decades, researchers in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan looked at ways to harvest uranium from sea water. But none of these efforts led to widespread success.
However, there is a renewed interest in sea water, not for gold or uranium, but for minerals needed to transport energy today. A team of scientists at the Northwest National Laboratory in the Pacific Ocean in Sequim, Washington has a new plan to extract minerals from the sea, this time, using a billion -year -old living technology: seaweed.
Sea herbs are a type of algae – a huge category of light organisms that grow mainly in water. It ranges from microscopic plankton along the road to the giant sea grass, which can grow huge 2 feet a day. They all grow by absorbing light from the sun, absorbing nutrients, minerals, and CO2, dissolved directly outside the ocean.
Scientists at the National Northwest Laboratory in the Pacific Ocean were already studying algae for decades as a possible way to make renewed biofuels. They were planting different types of algae in the laboratory, then improving it, and extracting all organic materials for fuel. Without this organic matter, they were left with a powder made of all the things that withdrew from algae from the sea water – including minerals. Initially, this powder was seen as a waste product. But as the demand for renewable energy began to take off, the laboratory realized that “waste products” were full of the same minerals required for this renewable mutation.
“This is where we started looking,” Edmundson said. “Oh, there are many minerals here that we really offer.”
Scott Edmundson and his colleagues at LAB DOVE, try to see if they can really get used metals from this algae waste product. The first step was to find the correct type of algae. They searched for the coasts of Washington, searched for the species that focused the most important minerals. This led them to the original rapidly growing seaweed called ULVA.
“Olva is one of my favorite seaweed,” Edmondson. “It is definitely rock music in the world of sea herbs.”
The researchers in the laboratory built a seawater pumping system into their laboratory on the beach. This was allowed to adjust the temperature, lighting and currents to create the ideal conditions for ULVA to absorb minerals. Sea herbs are very good in filtering minerals so that the levels of minerals can reach one million times of the original sea water.
Edmondson said: “Sea herbs have this wonderful ability to distribute orders in size,” Edmondson said. “So you are entering a world, now we can do something with him.”
Once sea herbs are harvested and dried, researchers use a machine that heats and presses them, and converts all organic materials into liquid that they can use for things like biofuels. This process is left behind this mineral rich powder, which they call Pio Khor.
On a recent visit to the laboratory, Edmondson showed a small container of vital conservation, which resembles colorless powder. “All organic materials have been removed in seaweed, and we have just left with minerals,” said Edmondson carrying the jar. Then pick up another jar filled with clay colored powder. “All seaweed has this different metal composition,” he said. “This one you can see is more modern. So this one has a much higher iron content.”
At this stage, the bio warrior is concentrated enough for the mining therapist to convert it into pure minerals for batteries or solar panels.
Behind seaweed, scientists are looking for other ways to extract minerals from the ocean. Maha Haji, an auxiliary professor at Cornell School at Sibli Mechanical Engineering and Space School, is working on a plan to suspend large metal filters from the suspended oil platforms. A few years ago, I looked at what would happen if all retired oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were converted into mineral water extracts.
Haji said: “With more research and development on the side of the materials, perhaps you can extract more than a quarter of a cobalt request in the United States,” said Haji. “This is a large amount of cobalt.”
While seawater mining on a large scale is still a means outside, both scientists feel that this technology has the ability to reshape mining exactly as we know it. For most date, precious metals were assembled in a handful of resource -rich hot points. In those hot points, people were doing everything it required to control these resources: they would fight wars, destroy the surrounding ecosystems, or violate human rights.
Sea water mining can change this. For beginners, 77 percent of the two countries can reach the coast. Haji said: “It opens a completely new world, as any country with a coastal line can harvest minerals for its own use.” “It almost destroys mining and metal harvest.”
For Edmondson, seaweed sees a way to convert mining into a positive environmental activity, as seaweed can filter pollutants and combat ocean acids.
“If you can accomplish this work, and you can do this in an environmentally responsible manner, it has high potential to provide the minerals that we need in a sustainable way of equality,” Edmondson said. “If you have access to the ocean, you have access to the minerals.”
