Magnesium recovery from seawater

Other Applications. Among other industrial uses of lime are causticizing agent in kraft (sulfate) paper (qv) plants recovery of ammonia (qv) from NH4CI (Solvay process) recovery of magnesium (qv) from seawater and brines via precipitation of Mg(OH)2 production of pesticides such as... 

Fernandez-Lozano, J.R. (1976) Recovery of potassium magnesium sulphate from seawater bittern. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Process Design and Development, 15, 445-449. 

Table 1 gives the average metal content of the earth s cmst, ore deposits, and concentrates. With the exceptions of the recovery of magnesium from seawater and alkaU metals from brines, and the solution mining and dump or heap leaching of some copper, gold, and uranium (see Uranium and uranium compounds), most ores are processed through mills. Concentrates are the raw materials for the extraction of primary metals. 

Dissolved Minerals. The most significant source of minerals for sustainable recovery may be ocean waters which contain nearly all the known elements in some degree of solution. Production of dissolved minerals from seawater is limited to fresh water, magnesium, magnesium compounds (qv), salt, bromine, and heavy water, ie, deuterium oxide. Considerable development of techniques for recovery of copper, gold, and uranium by solution or bacterial methods has been carried out in several countries for appHcation onshore. These methods are expected to be fully transferable to the marine environment (5). The potential for extraction of dissolved materials from naturally enriched sources, such as hydrothermal vents, may be high. 

Seawater is unfit for drinking or agriculture because each kilogram contains about 35 g of dissolved salts. The most abundant salt in seawater is sodium chloride, but more than 60 different elements are present in small amounts. Table 14.3 lists the ions that account for more than 99% of the mass of the dissolved salts. Although the oceans represent an almost unlimited source of chemicals, ion concentrations are so low that recovery costs are high. Only three substances are obtained from seawater commercially sodium chloride, magnesium, and bromine. 

The world s oceans hold 1.37x10 of water (97.2% of the total amount of water of the hydrosphere). They cover 71% of the earth s surface, are actually the biggest reservoir on our planet, and contain many important minerals. The overall content of mineral matter in the oceans is estimated to be about 5 x 10 tons [1,2]. The seas contain virtually all of the naturally occurring elements and are the only universal source of mineral wealth that is available to most nations. For some of them it is the only source. Yet, most of the elements, the microelements, are available in very low concentrations, i.e., in parts per billion (ppb). The products being extracted from seawater with economic profit at present are sodium chloride, magnesium compounds, and bromine [2-4]. During the last two decades there has been growing interest in the possibility of commercial recovery of additional minerals from seawater [5] and brines [6]. 

According to the latest estimates of Skinner [18], elements potentially recoverable from seawater are sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, chlorine, bromine, boron, and phosphorus because of their practically unlimited presence in the ocean. After improving respective technologies, recovery of the following elements is expected to become profitable as well lithium, rubidium, uranium, vanadium, and molybdenum. Additional profit can be gained since desalinated water will probably be obtained as a by-product. This could be important for countries with a very limited number of freshwater sources (e.g., Israel, Saudi Arabia). 

A first-stage recovery of magnesium from seawater is precipitation of Mg(OH)2 with CaO ... 

In most production wells, chloride salts are found either dissolved in water that is emulsified in crude oU or as suspended solids. Salts also originate from brines injected for secondary recovery or from seawater ballast in marine tankers. Typically, the salts in crude oils consist of 75% sodium chloride, 15% magnesium chloride, and 10% calcium chloride. When crude oils are charged to crude distillation units and heated to temperatures above approximately 120 °C, hydrogen chloride is evolved from magnesium and calcium chloride, whUe sodium chloride is essentiaUy stable up to roughly 750 °C. 

In addition to freshwater, seawater is also a source for sodium, magnesium, chlorides, iodine, bromine, and magnesium metal (see Sodium coLD>ouNDS Magnesium coLD>ouNDS Iodine Bromine Magnesiumand magnesium alloys). Many other elements are certain to be economically obtained from the ocean as technology for the recovery improves. 

Obtaining maximum performance from a seawater distillation unit requires minimising the detrimental effects of scale formation. The term scale describes deposits of calcium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide, or calcium sulfate that can form ia the brine heater and the heat-recovery condensers. The carbonates and the hydroxide are conventionally called alkaline scales, and the sulfate, nonalkaline scale. The presence of bicarbonate, carbonate, and hydroxide ions, the total concentration of which is referred to as the alkalinity of the seawater, leads to the alkaline scale formation. In seawater, the bicarbonate ions decompose to carbonate and hydroxide ions, giving most of the alkalinity. 

Riccardo et al. [841] showed that chitosan is promising as a chromatographic column for collecting traces of transition elements from salt solution and seawater, and for recovery of trace metal ions for analytical purposes. Traces of transition elements can be separated from sodium and magnesium, which are not retained by the chitosan. 

When magnesium sulphate was omitted from distilled water samples of phosphorus compounds, recovery was variable. Table 12.11 shows yields of a series of standards with and without the magnesium sulphate addition and with and without the final hydrolysis. The magnesium sulphate is used as an acidic solution (after addition to the seawater sample, the pH was about 3) to minimize silicate leaching from the glassware during evaporation. The acid and heating are necessary to hydrolyse any condensed phosphates in the final mixture. 

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