Uranium extraction from seawater using adsorbent shell enclosures via a symbiotic offshore wind turbine device

摘要

Seawater is estimated to contain 1000 times more uranium than conventionalterrestrial resources, which are forecasted to be depleted withinthe century. Previous studies of harvesting uranium from seawater havefocused on stand-alone, intermittent operation systems that have significanteconomic challenges due to the high cost of mooring and recoveryof the uranium adsorbing polymer. This paper presents two new designsof a seawater uranium extraction system coupled to a floating offshorewind turbine to eliminate the need for additional mooring and increasethe overall energy-gathering ability of the wind farm system. Both designsutilize adsorbent filament that is enclosed in a hard permeable shellto decouple the mechanical and chemical requirements of the system.One concept is prototyped at a 1:50-scale and pool tested.