News
– MagNa will develop an innovative system to recover magnesium and sodium from the brines generated by the seawater desalination process
– The recovered materials will be used for industrial purposes, contributing to reducing Europe’s commercial dependency
Seawater desalination is an increasingly used method to obtain water for industrial use, but this process generates brines—effluents with a high concentration of salts—which have traditionally been considered waste. The MagNa project will give value to these brines by recovering high-purity magnesium hydroxide and sodium chloride (salt) through a novel technology.
Magnesium and sodium are valuable raw materials with applications in various industries such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and they are currently imported in large quantities from countries outside the European Union (EU). Thanks to MagNa, this dependency will be reduced, while at the same time minimising the environmental impact of desalination through a circular-economy approach.
MagNa, led by Cetaqua-Water Technology Centre in collaboration with Aitasa-Aguas Industriales de Tarragona, Seureca Veolia and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), will develop an innovative industrial-scale brine treatment train at Aitasa’s facilities. This treatment system, composed of two modular units, will process an approximate flow of 2.5 cubic meters per hour of seawater.
Tamara León, MagNa’s Coordinator and Researcher at Cetaqua, highlights the importance of the initiative: “MagNa will help address two major challenges for Europe: the vulnerability caused by the lack of local production of key raw materials for economic development, and the management of the increasing presence of brines, especially in Spain, which is among the five countries worldwide with the highest desalination activity due to water stress. In addition, the technology developed can be replicated in other desalination plants, maximising its medium-term impact.”
Co-funded by the EU’s EIT RawMaterials program, this project is aligned with the EU Action Plan for Zero Pollution and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS), as it contributes to the prevention and reduction of water pollution. It is also aligned with the EU Green Deal, as it minimises the environmental footprint of economic activities.
In this way, MagNa contributes to the EU’s sustainability objectives and to the mission of EIT RawMaterials, which aims to drive Europe’s transition toward sustainability by demonstrating how advanced resource-recovery technologies can boost innovation across the raw-materials value chain and ensure the supply of valuable raw materials in water-stressed regions.
The opinions and materials presented in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author or authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the entities that financially support the project.
