Posted on 06/15/2025 3:13:04 PM PDT by NoLibZone
Compact machine turns air into ready-to-use gasoline Transforming clean fuel production with modular direct air capture technology
Recently, Aircela, a fuel company headquartered in New York, publicly demonstrated a machine in Manhattan that produces gasoline directly from air.
Aircela's technology combines direct air capture with on-site fuel synthesis, providing fossil-free gasoline that is fully compatible with existing engines and infrastructure.
The technology is based on direct air capture research, notably the work of physicist Klaus Lackner (shown on the left below), and is designed for easy installation in residential, commercial and industrial settings.
The process begins by drawing in ambient air and using a water-based solution containing potassium hydroxide to efficiently capture carbon dioxide. As air flows through a specially designed chamber, the liquid sorbent absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is then regenerated for repeated use. Next, the system uses renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. The hydrogen is retained for the fuel synthesis process, while the oxygen is safely released into the environment.
The captured carbon dioxide and generated hydrogen are then combined to create methanol, which is subsequently converted into gasoline using established chemical processes. The resulting gasoline contains no sulfur, ethanol or heavy metals, making it fully compatible with existing engines and infrastructure. Each Aircela unit can produce approximately one gallon of gasoline per day from around 22 pounds of captured carbon dioxide with a storage capacity of up to 17 gallons. This innovative machine enables users to generate fossil-free gasoline on site using only air, water and renewable electricity.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
My point was no matter where you go in Texas if your still.deep enough you get to large amounts of salt water. The sediments were deposited fully saturated with seawater in the geological past and the connate water remains. There is hundreds of cubic miles worth of it under the state every drop of it can be run through desalination. It’s how badly do you want it and how much is the exergy costs to do it. Deep submersible pumps are relatively efficient the oil industry perfected them long ago. RO desal is down to 3kWh per cubic meter that’s crazy low. If you have waste heat at 40C you can spray desal yo solid salts and 100% water recovery. With 50-60C you can run absorption chillers and make ice from brines to desal even RO reject brines. Seems counter intuitive to freeze rather than evaporate or flash steam brine but the heat of fusion is much less than the latent heat of evap. You get more water per BTU of waste heat with freezing vs flashing or evap.
GenIII nukes will make 60C waste heat and still be 40% efficient that’s what happens when you leave water cooled reactors behind and go to sodium or gas cooling 560C peak sodium temps down to 60C is still more efficient than 300C to 40C or even 30C for a PWR. Advanced gas reactor reach 1000C and do process what and supercritical power cycles for 50% plus carnot eff. Aalo is going sodium they also will do dry air cooling but can and will do 60+C process heat there is your mass produced SMR that will desal any brine regardless of this TDS content, spray desal can deal fully saturated 20# brines with 50C gas flows.
It’s how bad do you want that fresh water and what price per cubic meter is it worth to you.
Perfect phrasing of this technology. Decades ago, I bought a fuel-cell toy car that ran on fuel created from water. It used renewable electricity (a rechargeable battery recharged from a solar cell panel) that used the fuel cell to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen and oxygen could then be fed back through the fuel cell to generate electricity to drive the electric motor to power the toy car, with a by-product of water.
Needless to say, it was far more efficient to have the battery directly power the electric motor than to waste energy converting the hydrogen and oxygen into electricity, and vice versa. There is no cheaper efficient substitute for gasoline. Thankfully, I bought the fuel-cell toy car on a massive discount (10 percent of $200 plus price).
ERCOT budgets 250 homes per megawatt at peak summer demand. August 6th or so in Texas. That’s the metric they use to bid out reserve capacity and also the minimum peak demand point.
So a five megawatt turbine a typical size would be 5*250 or 1250 homes of typical Texas size.
China is putting up 10 megawatt turbines in its class 5 or better wind zones and they have 20 megawatt sized for offshore use. So it depends on what you size the blades at.
Thanks. I was only off by a factor of 10. Many people are amazed when you tell them that they are sitting on vast amounts of salt water. If it has porosity, it has salt water in it.
They say they can make a gallon with 75kWh of electrons all in.
Even retail level solar panels can put out 1.46 cents per kWh over the life of the panel in sunny Texas NM or AZ.
75 kWh would be 75*1.46= $1.09 in power costs can you get a gallon of gasoline for a $1.09 a gallon where you are?
Of course the capital costs have to be recovered that is what the real question is how much is the capex and O&M cost per gallon over the life of the assert. It will be a XX cents per gallon amortized cost.
Texas had three hours today where the grid we as selling power for 16 cents per megawatt hour this is effectively zero. Texas routinely has days where at noon power is sold for $10 or less per megawatt hour that’s one cent per kWh or 75 cents per gallon in energy costs. Texas was under $20 from midnight till 2100 today it peaked at $44 stayed there for two hours then dropped to $27 as of right now.
At $20 if you had access to wholesale prices it would be $1.50 a gallon in energy costs. You could have made fuel all day for that price stopped at 2000 and at 22000 gone right back to making it at $2 right now. Or wait till the wind kicks up tonight in West Texas and the wholesale price drops into the $10 range and its 75 cents per gallon.
Then if you had wholesale prices on panels like I do you get them at $105 each that’s 0.345 cents per kWh over the life of the panel. Now it gets interesting that’s only 25 cents per gallon in electrons for a product selling for $2.76 at the pump take out state gas tax 20 cents and fed gas tax 18.4c that’s a merchant sale price of 2.37 allowing a healthy 10% merchant profit which is way above normal that means your wholesale price is $2.13.
You have from 25 cents energy cost to wholesale price of 2.13 to cover capex and O&M per gallon that is a large range there probably is 20 to 30% profit margins in there and that is damn interesting as an investor’s ROI rate.
Solar farms get panels for even less they can hit $3 per megawatt hour to the farm edge that’s that’s under 20 cents per gallon in energy costs the potential for profits is huge even if you only run the gas making machines when the sun is up. As long as that amortized over the life of the assert per gallon is under $1.50 you have 43 cents per gallon profit margins
scale this bad boy up from a single gallon to something that draws a two megawatts that’s 26 gallons per hour production rates if they hit 75 kWh per gallon. Texas has 14 hours of day light this time of year. Size the solar field to have an avg daily output of 2000 kw over the 12 heart of the day. It would be just over an acre in size about 220 feet by 220 feet.
320 gallons per day is not to shabby for a about an acre of land every day the sun is out which in this part of Texas is 220 days per year. That’s 70,400 gallons per year under that solar radiation field.
For comparison corn ethanol is 400 gallons per year per acre at 2/3 the energy content of a gallon of real gasoline.
More importantly is 43 cents per gallon with a very generous $1.50 per gallon capex/O&M profit would be $30,270 per acre of land now that is damn interesting.
Let me guess, buy this now because it could soon go off the market because the government is concerned that this military grade technology should not be in the hands of the general public.
This tech gets really interesting with wind turbines in high wind area’s.
you need about 10 acres min for one but its footprint is tiny a few sq meters of surf ace area. West Texas is class 4 or 5 that’s 30-45% capacity factors at rated capacity. Even 30% of a 5 MW turbine is substantial. 13,140 megawatt hours per year.
They claim to be able to make a gallon in 75kWh which is mathematically possible it takes 52 kWh in modern electrolysis for a kg of hydrogen. Which makes 1.77 gallons of methanol and the Exxon MTG process already does 39% mass to mass production of gasoline from methanol so you need 1.2 kg of hydrogen for each gallon of gasoline. You get some propane too from MTG about 10% by mass. They would need 60 kWh for the h2 the CO2 is electrolysis based and it has a very low Gibbs energy to free it from KOH back into gas form 12 is more than enough single digit kWh is likely.
So 13,140 megawatt hours in a year is 13.140 million kWh that 75kWh per gallon that is 175200 gallons per year from a single turbine in West Texas or 17,500 gallons per acre of land which all buy a few sq meters would be grazed by cows still. At 43 cents per gallon a land owner would rake in $75,330 per year in fuel sales that is not to shabby for a ten acre plot of scrub brush. Solar makes much more per acre but its AND not or the panels don’t care if a turbine spins over them the sun moves the shadows over a ten acre area the shadow is a round error anyways. Ten acres is 20 megawatts of panels way more than the now 5 megawatt sized machine would need so sell the other 15 to the grid when the sun is up or if both the sun and the wind is blowing sell 5MW wind plus 15 solar and run the gas maker off the 5.
The whole point is having two power sources means at night when the wind is blowing your gas maker is pumping cash into your pockets during the day it’s just gravy of the wind blows sell that to ERCOT for-profit too. If it’s stormy during the day yeah that West Texas wind blows hard during storm fronts chaaachhing $$$$ solar panels make power even under partly cloudy sky’s they need light not direct sun. Having ten acres worth means your capacity factor for 5 MW is much higher even jnderpower light conditions.
Lastly even if there is no wind or sun just having access to wholesale power rates allows you to buy at the market price if it’s under $15 per MWh you would need the amortized cost per gallon to be around $1 per gallon to sell at $2.13 and make a few cents profits but still not zero. At $10 wholesale not uncommon in Texas you for sure make profits.
The military already has this tech they demo it in 2013 using seawater as the CO2 source and the water to turn to hydrogen. They made JP8 not gasoline as they don’t use gas they run the entire military off a single fuel JP8. Every ship,truck,tank,jet,helo,genset,chow tent burner they all run on JP8 or Navy carrier jets JP5 which is just high flash point narrow cut JP8 with anti static additives if you can make JP8 then JP5 is one step away. They wanted to use the nuke carriers reactor power to make jet fuel at sea or take mini nukes to far off outposts and do this kind of air capture tech too.
So the military doesn’t care of civys can make fuel from air the DOE has been sponsoring tech like this for years. It is the Holy grail in power storage systems. Make a market fungible product from thin air that stores at room temp,in plastic tanks and you don’t have to change your existing distribution or engines. It cannot be stressed enough how much of a breakthrough this is if they hit 75 kWh all in and it can scale to megawatt size in shipping container modules. You could drop these off at the base of wind turbines and they would crank out gasoline by the hundreds of thousands of gallons per year a literal skywell. I did the math for you on a 5 megawatt turbine above it’s significant. It all comes down to what is the amortized cost per gallon over the life of the the gasoline maker machine. Energy consumption is low per gallon and energy costs are so low with wind or solar at the sites right next to them by at least 70% since no transmission and distribution costs come into play.
For comparison the refinery that normally makes gasoline only expects a 5% ROI profit margin, the wholesaler gets about the same and the retail station rarely gets 3% or more sometimes gas is a loss leader to get people into the store where the high profit junk foods and impulse purchases are.
At 2.25 per gallon directly to the station skipping the wholesaler as small distributed production like this would mean that make it either at the location if they had access to cheap enough electrons or make it in West Texas and ship directly via trucks to the stations who would gladly skip the middle man for a 5% profit margins vs 3 or less.
$3 MWh electrons at the turbine base or solar farm edge is 22.5 cents in energy costs. This leaves over $2 per gallon in amortized cost plus shipping and maker profits.
Refineries using similar catalysts, steel grades, temps and pressures have capex in the $4000-$12000 per bbl range. There is 42 gallons in a bbl. A two megawatt sized machine would make 26 gallons per hour over a 24 hour period to be fully used would be 640 gallons or 15.2 bbls.
This leads to a range of possible capex of $60,900 to 182,850. For a machine of this yield. Typical lifespans of 25 years for the panels refineries last with regular maintenance 50+ but let’s look at 25 years. Giving a 90% availability rate of the machine over a years time the max output 24/7 is 210240 gallons per year. Over 25 years that’s a max output of 5,256,000 gallons if run at 90% availability.
That would work out to 182850/5256000=0.0347901718 or 3.47 cents per gallon
Now you have my attention because we already know with retail sales in the $2.76 range a $1.50 capex plus o&m give a 43 cents per gallon profit margins with solar panels make power at wholesale rates.
At $12000 per bbl in capex inline with what refineries pay for similar steels,catalysts and processes it’s not $1.50 it’s less than four cents per gallon.
So the question is that is at 90% availability rate solar is not that it’s intermittent how about Texas with 220 days at 12+ hours per day of sun our longest day is over 14 hours the shortest is 10.5.
This is easy to figure out using the PVOUT GIS numbers for Texas it’s 5.4 kwh/kwp averaged over a full 365 day year.
2000kw array would generate 5.4kWh per 1kw capacity per day or 1974 kWh per 1kw capacity per year. 2000kw array
=3,949,300 kWh per year that’s 52,657.33 gallons per year over the 25 year life of the array that’s 1,316,433.33 gallons of gasoline made.
At capex of $182850 which is 12,000 per bbl per day capex it’s $0.138 or 14 cents per gallon.
This means if they can come anywhere close to the capex of a refinery using similar catalysts,steels and processed just scaled down which should make it cheaper not more expansive as catalysts are priced per gram.
This means energy is the dominate cost and with dedicated solar panels you can get to 25 cents per gallon or less. People are going to make BANK with this. I wonder if they are public company is taking VC money.
Flipping this around to my original $1.50 per gallon capex plus o&m with $1 for capex allows for a ridiculous $86,500 per barrel per day of capital initial costs while still leaving 50 cents per gallon for catalysts replacements, and yearly maintenance on the reactors,pipes and pumps.
That’s $1,316,000 ÷ 15.2(bbl per day) to get a $1 per gallon capital costs upfront. That’s 86,500 per bbl bordering on obscene in capital costs.
Even with this level of costs with $10 wholesale megawatt hours it’s $2.50 per gallon with 25 cents profits before taxes and 5 % retail profits.
Panels can put out $3 per MWh to the farm edge all day every day there is sun. That’s only 22 cents of energy costs, $1.50 capex+o&m is 78 cents profit for the makers delivering the same $2.50 per gallon to the retailer. That’s exactly $3 with TX state, fed and 5% for the retailer margins.
The $1 capex is so ridiculous it’s just to illustrate a point, o&m is likely to be 25 cents or less for catalysts and yearly maintenance.
Course EVs just kill this if you feed a model 3 using 180 watt hours per mile power off retail level panels at 1.4 cents per kWh your cost per mile is 0.25 cents per mile.
to match that in a 30 mpg ICE car of similar size gasoline would need to be 7.63 CENTS per gallon. Taxes alone are costing you 38.4 cents per gallon and that is 1.28 cents per mile. Gasoline would need to be 6.3 CENTS per gallon retail never ever going to happen.
My Tesla 3 is $250 a month vs 550+ for the Volvo it replaced so it has been from mile one cheaper a LOT cheaper.
Still some group is going to make an absolute killing with tech like this selling to the gasoline bro bros who will lap up $3 fuel and be all chest thumping about it. It does out a cap on fuel prices with $10 wholesale megawatt rates giving crazy good profits for $3 gasoline.
What air left for breathing?
Snake Oil, how much energy has to be put in the machine vs it’s supposed output. I’m still waiting for that cold fusion revolution we were promised and a Mr. Fusion on every EV.
What you describe sounds too good to be true. Why have no private equity groups thrown some money at it or have they? I have sold and taken many oil and gas deals through the years. The one thing they had in common was that they all looked good on paper until you threw a few million dollars into a hole in the ground. Some worked, many did not. Where is the risk in this project? There has to be.
imho the greatest thing the Trump administration could do is to hire Musk to create desalination machines that can desalinate sea water for $200@acre foot. The machines would have to be manufactured in factories and designed to work either independently or in concert with other desalination machines—so they can scale to whatever level is needed. They would have to be able to sort out all the elements in seawater for resale profitably. at $200@ acre foot even if you include $100@acre foot to pipe seawater 2000 miles inland —it become profitable to farm or create a city in any desert on earth. That would roughly double the habitable size of earth.
desalinating brackish water is generaly 20%-50% cheaper than desalinating seawater. There is a brackish water desalination plant in El Paso that desalinates brackish water for roughly half the price the carlsbad desalination plant desalinates seawater in california.
And if Musk wanted to—he could make the desalination machine dual use for Mars.
That vision alone would change the future.
What’s most shocking is that its all very doable.
I have done exploration and exploitation in all major basins in North America, West Coast Africa offshore, Tunisia, South Africa, Argentina, and hard rock in the DRC and Australia with a pending offer the other Congo. I have been a petroleum geo, a ops geo,former frack engineer, and hold post graduate sheep skin in hydro geo, and geo chemistry for my 3 and 4th master’s with a single PhD in hydro. The Industry made me a wealthy man so I am free to pursue what interests me. Currently that is energy technology.
This group has its first at scale proof of concept that is what this device is. They probably do have VC behind them. As will all things it’s one thing to take a lab queen tech yo proof of concept it’s entirely different to scale it to commercial sized projects.
It comes down to capex of that device at a useful scale. But looking at the overall numbers if they can get the scale to megawatt size in shipping container modules for anything under $80,000 per bbl per day of initial outlays they have a competitive tech and economics with dedicated solar panels or wind energy.
The chemistry is solid Exxon Mobil has been doing it since the 1980s micro channel catalyst reactors changed the industry you can bank on this is a multichannel micro sized catalyst bed using gram levels in micron thin sheets on printed circuit board type channels and heat exchangers.
The impressive part is they hit 75kWh per gallon that is close to 50% energy in to energy out for a chemical synthesis system that typically run in the 35% range at best. This is why I say they are using micro channel catalyst reactors it’s the only way to heat exchange with that level of efficiency.
100% agree desal is the way forward. I posted a link from the USGS showing where the saline ground water is and how deep to it somewhere up thread. The USA is covering huge saline groundwater reserves thousands of years worth of water.
There is a number of ways to desal the Israelis use RO and have it down to 3kWh electric all in per cubic meter that’s from 34,500ppm brackish water at 10,000 would be 1/3 to 1/2 that. The trick is the capital costs per cubic meter capacity must be low enough to run the machines intermittently if you want to use them with solar or wind or want to use them to grid balance peaks and low by cycling gigawatt scale loads off and on at will. Water stores cheap ,pumps cheap too. You run the RO machines when you have extra power from intermittent sources or even curtailment power which if you had gigawatt sized RO plants to would never have curtailment power you are a supply based grid then not a demand based grid.
What you propose with mineral extraction is going to need other steps either before the RO process or in the brine after it. Electodialysis with ion specific membranes can separate into different fluid paths ions. Lithium has been done it’s the obvious choice, sodium as NaOH & HCl paired. Magnesium, potassium, and the Chinese have done uranium with electric current and seawater or brines.
Here again brine stores easy ,pumps too, you run your ED machines when there is cheap power to be had and score the raw brines until it is cheap. This also makes for a supply based grid vs demand grid. The.more ED and RO units you have the more the grid flips to get what can you give me not give me this now.
If you have nukes at large scale you also have waste heat at huge scales. GEMINI nukes can easily be run with low heat sink temp at 60C vs 30C. With that level of gigawatt scale heat at 60C you can run massive rapid spray desal towers that don’t generate brine they make solid salt and water vapor that your condense into distilled grade water. Takes about 40kWh thermal per cubic meter and 2kWh in pumping and fans for the heat loops.
The other choice is doing absorption chillers 60C give a COP of 1.5 to 2 for sub freezing temps. Brine freezes into fresh water ice and more brine the energy needed to freeze is much less than to evaporate or flash steam. You can get four times as much water from freezing as flashing with a COP of 2 on the chillers. Plus all melting ice is begging to be melted while chilling a district cooling loop. You use the heat from your buildings to melt the freshwater ice. I got climates 75% of the building electric load is cooling this alone justifies using freeze desal vs flash desal.
$200 per acrefoot is doable from an energy standpoint. There is 1233 cubic meters in a acrefoot at $30 per megawatt hour typical for Texas wind are night you need 3.7 megawatt hours for that acrefoot $110 in raw energy costs using 3kWh per cubic meter like the Israelis do. It always comes down to the capital of the production device can you get it low enough so that the amortized cost per cubic meter over it’s lifespan is small enough to run intermittently if you want access to that super cheap off peak, curtailment or demand reduction based power.
This got me thinking a single 5MW turbine in class four West Texas has a 30-35% capacity factor.
That means it will generate 13,140,000 kWh in a year @30% CF using seawater level saline water you get 39,420,000 cubic meters of water @3 kWh/M^3
39,420,000 / 1233 cubic meters = 31,970 acrefeet per year.
That turbine sits above 10 acres of land area, and occupies a footprint of under 50 SW meters of foundation.
So that single turbine could flood those ten acres with 319.7 FEET of water depth per year.
It takes 60” irrigation to cover evapotranspiration and growth needs of alfalfa in the desert probably less in the semidesert. That’s 5 acrefeet per acre a huge amount the worse of all crops in the desert actually.
Still that single turbine can irrigate 6,394 acres to a yearly depth of five feet. Let those numbers sink in. We don’t have a water crisis we have a lack of political will crisis the technology is there the will to use it is not.
Messed up calc was *3 not /3 on the spreadsheet the above numbers need to be a factor of 3 less still impressive.
That single turbine could provide 50 gallons a day or 1500 per month a typical urban water usage amount for an individual American for 64,000 ish people...One single turbine.
Gallons per day per person
50*365=18250
Acre feet in gallons / gallons per year = number of people per AF
325850/18250=18.1
Wind turbine @30% CF and 3kWh/m^3
13,140,000 kWh / 3 = 4,380,000 cubic meters of water @3 kWh/M^3
4,380,000 / 1233 cubic meters = 3,552 acrefeet per year.
3552*18.1= 64,296
Still impressive for a lone 5MW turbine in dry West Texas.
3552 acrefeet flood irrigates 710 acres to a depth of 5 acrefeet. That’s over a square mile which is 640 acres.
for fun I asked chatgpt deep research: There are roughly 40-60 mineral and metals in seawater plus NaCl and H20. Review the world wide literature to get a complete list of things that are extracted from sea water.
Answer: To provide the most accurate and complete list of materials extracted from seawater, could you clarify a few points:
Are you looking for both current industrial-scale extractions and experimental/research-stage extractions?
Should I include only elements/metals (e.g., lithium, magnesium) or also compounds and products (e.g., bromine, desalinated water)?
Would you like a focus on specific uses (e.g., battery materials, fertilizers) or a general list?
Once I have this clarification, I’ll begin the review of the global literature.
You said:
1,) both 2.)both 3.)a general list. Here is what I’m thinking. Desalination would be more inexpensive if the brine concentrate left over from desalination were converted from a cost center to a profit center. It looks like bits and pieces of the brine concentrate are currently being removed from desalination concentrate all over the world. However, the best strategy to reduce the cost of desalination would be to turn all of the brine concentrate to profit rather than a cost that has to be born by waste removal. That’s the reason I’m asking my questions.
Thanks for the clarification. I’ll compile a comprehensive list of all known elements, minerals, metals, and compounds currently or experimentally extracted from seawater around the world. This will include both large-scale industrial extractions and smaller or research-stage efforts, and I’ll also consider the strategic context of converting brine from a waste product into a revenue stream.
I’ll let you know as soon as the full report is ready.
Here’s Chatgpt’s report: fwiw.
I’ll let you know as soon as the full report is ready.
Ok here we begin:
# Minerals and Metals Extracted from Seawater
## Seawater Composition and Extractable Elements
Seawater contains **almost every element of the periodic table**, though many are only in trace amounts. About 96.7% of seawater is simply **water (H₂O)**, and the remaining \~3.3% is dissolved salts. Just **11 major constituents** make up 99.9% of all dissolved salts: in order of abundance these are *chlorine*, *sodium*, *magnesium*, *sulfur* (as sulfate), *calcium*, *potassium*, *carbon* (as bicarbonate/carbonate), *bromine*, *boron*, *strontium*, and *fluorine*. In other words, the **main ions** in seawater are Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, K⁺, Sr²⁺ on the cation side, and Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, HCO₃⁻/CO₃²⁻, Br⁻, BO₃²⁻, F⁻ on the anion side. Besides these majors, **dozens of other minerals and metals** (on the order of 40–60 elements) are present in trace quantities (micrograms per liter range) – for example, lithium (\~0.17 ppm), rubidium (\~0.12 ppm), iodine (\~0.06 ppm), phosphorus (\~0.07 ppm), barium (\~0.03 ppm), arsenic (\~0.002 ppm), iron (\~0.003 ppm), zinc (\~0.005 ppm), etc. Most of these trace elements are extremely dilute, but *in total* the oceans hold vast absolute amounts – far more of many minerals than all known land reserves. This makes seawater a tempting “ore” if extraction can be done economically.
**Historically, humans have mined minerals from the sea for millennia.** Common table salt (sodium chloride) has been harvested from seawater via evaporation since ancient times (at least as far back as 2000 B.C.). Likewise, other marine chemicals like magnesium compounds and bromine have been produced from seawater for decades. Today, **desalination plants** – which remove H₂O as freshwater – produce a concentrated brine as waste. This brine contains all the dissolved salts at roughly **double** the normal concentration, offering a potential resource. The idea is that if we **recover valuable minerals from desalination brine**, we can offset the costs of producing fresh water and reduce the environmental impact of brine disposal. In fact, researchers estimate that the minerals in global desalination brines could be worth trillions of dollars in aggregate if fully extracted. Below is a comprehensive list of the **materials extracted from seawater** (either currently or in proposed processes around the world):
## Major Products Extracted from Seawater
* **Fresh Water (H₂O)** – *Desalinated water* is arguably the most important product obtained from seawater. Through processes like reverse osmosis or distillation, saltwater is converted to fresh drinking and irrigation water. This is done on a large scale in many arid coastal regions. While water itself is not a mineral, it’s the primary “extraction” in desalination. The remaining **brine** is then a concentrated source of other minerals rather than a waste.
* **Sodium Chloride (NaCl)** – *Common salt* is the oldest and largest mineral extracted from the sea. Huge solar evaporation ponds around the world (in China, India, Middle East, etc.) yield sea salt for food and industry. Seawater typically contains \~35 g/L of salts, of which NaCl is the majority (about 27 g/L). By evaporating the water, solid salt is crystallized and harvested. **Chlorine** and **sodium hydroxide** can also be produced by electrolyzing seawater-derived salt. NaCl from seawater is used for cooking, food preservation, de-icing roads, chemical feedstock, and more.
* *Ingots of magnesium metal extracted from concentrated seawater brine.* **Magnesium (Mg)** – Magnesium is a **major metal** obtained from seawater and brines. It is the third-most abundant dissolved element in ocean water (after sodium and chlorine), at \~1,300 ppm Mg. Magnesium compounds have been produced from seawater since the 19th century, and magnesium metal extraction ramped up during World War II (as an aerospace material). Even today, a large share of U.S. magnesium production comes from seawater or brine sources. The metal can be extracted by first precipitating magnesium hydroxide or magnesium carbonate from brine, then converting to magnesium chloride and electrolyzing it. For example, the company Magrathea Metals is piloting carbon-neutral magnesium extraction from desalination brine, producing metal ingots like those shown above. Magnesium from seawater is used in alloys (e.g. aluminum-magnesium in cars and planes), in steel production, construction materials, and as **magnesium chemicals** (like MgO, Mg(OH)*2*, Epsom salt MgSO\_4\_). In 2015, roughly **63% of US magnesium** output was from seawater and brine sources, highlighting its economic importance.
* **Calcium (Ca)** – Seawater contains calcium (\~400 ppm) mainly as calcium ions and sulfate. While calcium itself isn’t extracted as a pure metal (it’s too reactive), **calcium compounds** are obtained. For example, adding alkali to concentrated brine will precipitate **calcium carbonate** (limestone) or **calcium sulfate** (gypsum). These minerals can be used in the **construction industry** (gypsum for drywall, CaCO₃ for cement or lime) and for **soil amendment** in agriculture. Mining calcium from seawater brine can also tie up CO₂ (by forming CaCO₃), which is being explored as a carbon-capture technique. Though calcium is plentiful, the market value of extracted CaCO₃ or gypsum from brine could still contribute to offsetting desalination costs.
* **Potassium (K)** – Potassium is present at \~380 ppm in seawater (mostly as K⁺). **Potash** (potassium chloride, KCl) and other K salts can be produced from seawater or salt lake brines. For instance, the Dead Sea in the Middle East is a source of potash fertilizer. From standard ocean brine, after NaCl is crystallized, the remaining bittern can yield potassium salts (like KCl or potassium sulfate) by further evaporation and selective crystallization. These potassium fertilizers are crucial for agriculture. Extracting K from seawater brine provides an alternative to mining potash ore, and it supplies plant nutrients (K is one of the “N-P-K” primary nutrients). Researchers have developed selective **ion-exchange membranes and sorbents** to recover potassium from desalination concentrates. This could give coastal nations a local source of fertilizer.
* **Bromine (Br)** – Bromide ions (\~65 mg/L) in seawater can be chemically oxidized to elemental **bromine**. Bromine has indeed been extracted from ocean sources for over a century. Today **China and Japan produce bromine from seawater**, and historically the U.S. and UK did as well. The typical process (“blow-out” process) adds chlorine gas to acidified brine to liberate bromine, which is then distilled out. Bromine is a valuable chemical used in flame retardants, drilling fluids, certain pharmaceuticals, and photography. For example, the **Dead Sea** (with very high bromide content) is a major bromine source. While seawater has less Br, large volumes can still yield significant bromine. Recovering bromine from desalination waste brine is attractive since it concentrates bromide further.
* **Boron (B)** – Present as borate (boric acid) at \~4.5 mg/L, boron is another element that can be recovered. Desalination plants often need to remove boron from product water (because boron can be harmful to crops at high levels), so methods exist to capture boron from brine. **Boric acid** or **sodium borate (borax)** can be precipitated out as the brine evaporates. Boron compounds are used in glass and fiberglass production, detergents, flame retardants, and as micronutrient fertilizers. Although most borates come from land mines, extracting boron from seawater brine could supplement supply. Notably, boron is one of the plant nutrients identified for recovery in low-cost fertilizer schemes from seawater.
* **Strontium (Sr)** – Seawater contains \~8 mg/L strontium (as Sr²⁺). Strontium can be recovered as **strontium sulfate (celestite)** or other compounds by treating brine. Strontium has niche uses: in ceramics and glass, in *strontium ferrite* magnets, in fireworks and signal flares (Sr compounds give a bright red flame), and in certain aluminum alloys. If obtained from desalination brine, strontium could be a minor by-product. Some studies have noted methods to precipitate Sr or use sorbents to selectively take up strontium from brines. While not a high-value metal, strontium’s presence in brine (higher concentration than many trace metals) makes it one of the feasible targets for **“brine mining.”**
* **Lithium (Li)** – Lithium is a highly sought-after metal (for batteries), and seawater contains \~0.17 mg/L Li⁺. This concentration is very low, but the *total* lithium in all oceans is enormous. There is intense research interest in **extracting lithium from seawater** or desalination brine. In the 1970s, Japan trialed lithium extraction from seawater, but the tests were soon abandoned as uneconomical. Today, however, improved adsorbents (like manganese oxide-based sorbents) have shown promise in selectively capturing lithium ions from seawater. Pilot projects have managed to extract small amounts of lithium, and ideas include processing huge flows of brine through lithium-binding membranes. As of now, no commercial-scale lithium-from-seawater operation exists; most lithium comes from high-Li continental brine lakes or mineral ores. But given lithium’s high value and demand, even the **17,000+ tons of lithium** potentially present in yearly desalination waste brines worldwide are attracting interest. Lithium extracted as lithium carbonate or lithium chloride from the ocean could one day contribute to battery supply chains if costs come down.
* **Rubidium (Rb) and Cesium (Cs)** – These alkali metals are present at extremely low levels (Rb \~0.12 mg/L, Cs \~0.0005 mg/L), but they are very valuable. **Rubidium** in particular (used in specialty glasses, fiber-optic telecom, and medical imaging) can fetch on the order of \$10,000+ per kg. Researchers have demonstrated adsorption methods to recover rubidium from simulated seawater brines, often alongside potassium or using selective zeolite and ion-exchange materials. A few experimental studies showed rubidium and cesium could be concentrated from RO brine, since these ions behave conservatively in seawater. There is no large-scale extraction yet, but these metals are on the list of “potentially profitable” seawater elements given sufficient technological advances. Any recovered Rb/Cs would likely be used in electronics, specialty lighting, and research applications.
* **Uranium (U)** – The oceans hold an estimated 4 billion tons of uranium (at about 3 parts per billion concentration UO₂²⁺). **Uranium extraction from seawater** has been studied since the 1960s as a means to obtain virtually unlimited nuclear fuel. In the late 1990s, Japan succeeded in harvesting a few grams of uranium from seawater using sea-placed adsorbent fibers. The adsorbent (often an amidoxime-based polymer) selectively binds uranium complexes; after soaking in the ocean, uranium can be eluted off. The main hurdle is cost – the best achieved cost for seawater-derived uranium has been several times higher than conventional mining. Thus, no commercial uranium-from-sea operation exists yet. However, research continues (supported by entities like the U.S. Department of Energy) to improve adsorbent efficiency and durability. Uranium is considered a long-term strategic resource that could one day be tapped if land reserves dwindle or prices rise. Any uranium extracted (typically converted to yellowcake, U\_3O\_8) would be used as fuel for nuclear reactors.
* **Other Trace Elements:** Many other metals are dissolved in seawater in tiny concentrations. These include **copper, zinc, cobalt, nickel, lead, silver, gold**, and rare earth elements, among others. For example, seawater has on the order of 0.01 mg/L zinc and even less copper and cobalt. **Copper and zinc** from desalination brine have been noted as potential targets (since large volumes of brine contain significant total amounts of these). However, to date there is *no commercial extraction of these trace metals* directly from seawater – it is simply too energy-intensive to accumulate such dilute elements. (For perspective, gold exists at only \~0.000005 mg/L in seawater, so any notion of “mining gold from the sea” has remained impractical.) These elements are usually considered *impurities* rather than products in the context of brine mining. If recovered at all, it might be as by-products of other processes or using biosorption (e.g. seaweed can accumulate certain heavy metals). The focus of seawater mineral extraction is therefore on the **higher-concentration and high-value substances** listed above, rather than ultra-trace metals.
## Desalination Brine as a Resource, Not a Waste
Around the world, **desalination plants** are turning seawater into fresh water, and in the process generate **high-salinity brine**. Traditionally this brine is disposed of (pumped back to the ocean or into evaporation ponds), which incurs cost and environmental risk. Now, there is a drive to **“mine” the brine** for all valuable components so that the leftover waste is minimized. Researchers point out that every day, global desalination facilities produce on the order of *37 billion gallons of brine* laden with magnesium, sodium, calcium, potassium, bromine, **copper, zinc**, and other metals. One analysis estimated that if one Saudi Arabian SWRO (seawater reverse osmosis) plant recovered its Na, Mg, Ca, K, the **annual market value could be \~\$18 billion**. Another study by Oregon State University projected that all the minerals in the world’s desalination brine output might sum to **\$2.2 trillion in value** (including over 17,000 tons of lithium). While these numbers are theoretical, they underscore the opportunity: turning brine into a **profit center** could dramatically improve the economics of desalination.
In practice, **several countries already extract “bits and pieces” from brine**. For instance, as noted, China and Japan recover bromine from seawater; the U.S. and Israel produce magnesium from natural brines; the Dead Sea Works in Jordan/Israel produces potash (K) and bromine; and coastal salt operations often also harvest magnesium chemicals from the bittern. These existing projects, however, tend to focus on one primary product (like salt or magnesium) and treat the rest as waste. The **ultimate goal** – and subject of ongoing R\&D – is to **cascade** the extraction process to recover *multiple* products from the same brine stream. In an ideal scenario, a desalination plant could produce fresh water *and* a suite of by-products (NaCl, Mg(OH)*2*, CaCO\_3\_, KCl, etc.), leaving only a minimal residue to dispose of. This *integrated brine mining* approach would turn today’s costly brine waste into a source of revenue and **reduce the environmental impact** of desalination discharge.
Achieving this is technically challenging – it requires combining chemical separation processes (precipitation, evaporation, electrochemical extraction, selective adsorption, etc.) in sequence, tailored to the local brine composition. It also requires that the recovered products have a market demand and fetch enough price to justify the extraction costs. The research reviewed in literature indicates that **sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, bromine, boron, strontium, lithium, rubidium, and uranium** are among the most promising targets from seawater in terms of an economic payoff if recovered efficiently. These elements either occur in relatively higher concentrations or have high market values. By focusing on such minerals, the **cost of desalination could be offset** by sales of mineral products, effectively subsidizing potable water production.
In summary, **seawater contains a bounty of minerals and metals** – over four dozen elements – and humans have found ways to extract a number of them, including fresh water, salt, magnesium, bromine, calcium (as solids), potassium salts, boron, and more. **New technologies** (advanced membranes, absorbents, and crystallizers) are now expanding the range of what’s feasible to recover from the oceans. The vision of turning *all* desalination brine into useful products is driving innovation. If successful, this will transform seawater from simply a water source into a source of multiple commodities, thereby *converting brine from a cost center into a profit center* – dramatically improving the sustainability and economics of seawater desalination.
**Sources:** The composition and mineral content of seawater are documented in oceanographic literature. Current and historical extraction of seawater minerals (salt, Mg, Br, etc.) and emerging research on brine mining are detailed in studies and reviews. These sources demonstrate the global interest and progress in recovering **40+ elements** from the sea. The effort continues to make desalination more affordable by harnessing the full value of the oceans’ dissolved minerals.
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