Application
Brine mining: recovering saleable material from the reject stream
Magnesium, potassium, bromine, lithium and salts leave most plants as a disposal cost. Concentrated far enough, they leave as product.
- Concentration before recovery
- 220–280g/L
- Overall water recovery
- 99%+
- MBC™ energy, vs 25–60 thermal
- 5–12kWh/m³
What is already in the reject stream
Reject streams routinely carry recoverable material at concentrations a mining operation would be glad to see. Treatment is specified for compliance, so that material leaves as a disposal cost.
- Disposal cost
- Priced per unit volume, and rising fastest where the discharge permit is hardest to hold.
- Critical mineral supply
- Constrained supply is holding lithium and rare-earth prices above their historical band.
- Recovery as a compliance route
- Taking material out as product is often the cheapest way to meet a discharge limit.
Three streams worth recovering
Each is a different separation problem. All three sit downstream of the same concentration step.
Lithium recovery
Oilfield produced water, geothermal brine, and mining process water. The project's extraction step takes lithium off the matrix; MBC™ concentrates it to crystallization strength.
- Over 90% of the lithium in the source stream
- Other minerals in the matrix recovered in the same pass
- Clean water back to the operation
Solvent recovery
API manufacturing, semiconductor fabrication, and coating operations. Membrane separation concentrates the solvent; distillation finishes it at a fraction of the energy.
- Solvents at direct-reuse specification
- 60–80% reduction in fresh solvent purchases
- Hazardous disposal volume falls by what is recovered
Salt & critical mineral recovery
Seawater brine carries magnesium, potassium, and bromine; chlor-alkali and drilling waters carry barium and strontium. Concentration to crystallization strength, then selective separation.
- Industrial-grade sodium chloride
- Magnesium hydroxide and calcium chloride as saleable by-products
- Potassium salts at fertilizer grade
- Barium sulfate at drilling-fluid grade
How the platform is configured for recovery
Recovery is a concentration problem before it is a chemistry problem. Most selective processes only become economic once the target species is present at a workable concentration, which is exactly what the platform is for.
- SAMRO™ for pre-concentration
- Efficiently concentrate dilute valuable streams, separate clean water from valuable concentrate, and minimize energy across the front end.
- MBC™ for final concentration
- Take streams to crystallization-ready levels that thermal systems would otherwise be required to reach.
- Partner chemistry for selectivity
- Selective extraction and crystallization steps come from qualified technology partners, integrated into the same design basis.
- One performance basis
- Recovery, product quality, and energy are guaranteed against the whole train, not stage by stage.
A first read on your stream
Send the flow, the chemistry, and the target. A process engineer replies with a first read on recovery, energy, and the train worth piloting.