Phase 1 - Research Thrusts | Brine Miners

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Thrust 1
Thrust 2
Thrust 3
Thrust 4

Thrust 1 - Mineral Mining from Seawater via Solar Thermal Energy

Current seawater mining technologies treat many minerals as byproducts and create environmentally-damaging waste. The economic recovery of these materials would offset clean water production cost and mitigate brine disposal pollution. Espiku’s seawater mining process has shown scientific feasibility for clean and cost-effective lithium extraction from geothermal brine using low-grade heat from solar energy.

Technology	Advantages	Disadvantages
Solar Pond	- Passive process - Minimum maintenance - Uses low-grade heat from solar energy	- Takes an exceedingly long time - Depletes water resources and is environmentally damaging - Hinders extraction of Li+
Ion Exchange	- Reduces concentration time - Space-efficient - Has expanded reserves	- Fouling of ion exchange resins - Expensive infrastructure - Requires high-grade heat
Electrodialysis	- Reduces concentration time - Space-efficient - Has expanded reserves	- Complicated to control - Expensive electricity infrastructure - Fouling of membranes - Requires high-grade heat
Our Process	- Uses low-grade heat (< 150 oC) - Clean and environmentally benign - Produces clean water	-Still at lab scale (pilot scale tests will be demonstrated)

Brine is atomized to reach desired Li+ concentrations while precipitating out other cations. Li+ is then chemically treated to produce Li2Co3 with a Li+ recovery of 90%. Our system can increase Li+ concentrations from 160 ppm to 7000 ppm and reduces GHG emissions by 70%.

Espiku’s anti-fouling atomizer demonstrates 3.5-80% brine with separation efficiencies of over 99.8%. It doesn’t require high pressures or temperatures or expensive materials.

Steps in a process using an anti-fouling atomizer to extract minerals

Thrust 2 – Catalysts Minimize Precious Metal Loading & Exhibit Cl-tolerance

We will combine patented SrIrO3-based catalysts2 (a) with a layer of Mn oxide3 (b) to produce highly active, Cl-tolerant catalysts for electrolyzers that can split water to produce H2 and O2.

Thrust 3 – Membrane-based Electrode Manufacturing for Electrolyzers

MemPro integrates Thrust 2 catalysts onto nanofibers to reduce materials loading and improve their stability.

Then coat on ceramic ion exchange membranes from Membrion using highly-scalable, low temperature roll-to-roll processing.

Thrust 4 - Circular Economy

Capture and advance circular economy impacts using system modeling and the development of quantitative circularity metrics.

Brine Miners

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