MINERALS project aims to develop advanced technologies for the selective extraction of high-value elements contained in brine from the reverse osmosis seawater desalination process, opening up of new sources for the obtention of critical elements and raw materials for technological and industrial use.
The high-value elements contemplated in the project are lithium, rubidium, boron, potassium, calcium and magnesium.
The advanced technologies considered in this project include liquid membranes, polymeric inclusion membranes, nanofibre adsorbents and precipitation processes for majority minerals. These technologies will be developed and scaled up to evaluate their extraction efficiency in a pilot plant to validate their feasibility for full-scale application.