US Energy Dep’t Exploring Process for Extracting Magnesium from Seawater

The US Department of Energy, through its Northwest National Laboratory, is developing a process that processes magnesium from seawater, The Engineer reported.

As quoted in the market news:

PNNL is leading a $2.7m, three-year project to develop a novel method that removes naturally occurring magnesium from seawater. The project was by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

‘Demand for lightweight metals such as magnesium is growing, but it’s expensive and energy-intensive to produce them,’ said the project’s lead researcher, PNNL Laboratory Fellow Pete McGrail. ‘We expect our method will be 50 per cent more energy efficient than the United States’ current magnesium production process. This will also decrease carbon emissions and the cost.’

Read the full article in The Engineer here