Search results for "Saltworks"
showing 9 items of 9 documents
Biodiversity as a source of innovation and development: the Trapani and Marsala saltworks
2014
A continuous plug flow reactor for magnesium recovery from concentrated brine
2015
Magnesium is one of the eight most abundant elements on the world and the third most abun- dant in the sea, buc practically only two countries (Russia and China) control the world market for this compound. Product purity, Mg recovery, crystal morphology and granulometric distribution of precipitated particles were examined through careful laboratory analysis and results from different tests were compared, in order to identify the effect of allcaline species’ nature and concentration on precipitation phenomena.
Development of a pilot plant for the recovery of magnesium hydroxide from waste brines
Waste brines from various industrial processes, mainly from saltworks, are an important source of minerals, such as magnesium, table salt and potable water.
Mining minerals and critical raw materials from bittern: Understanding metal ions fate in saltwork ponds
2022
Seawater represents a potential resource for raw materials extraction. Although NaCl is the most representative mineral extracted other valuable compounds such as Mg, Li, Sr, Rb and B and elements at trace level (Cs, Co, In, Sc, Ga and Ge) are also contained in this “liquid mine”. Most of them are considered as Critical Raw Materials by the European Union. Solar saltworks, providing concentration factors of up-to 20 to 40, offer a perfect platform for the development of minerals and metal recovery schemes taking benefit of the concentration and purification achieved along the evaporation saltwork ponds. However, the geochemistry of these elements in this environment has not been yet thoroug…
Reactive crystallisation process for magnesium recovery from concentrated brines
2014
Seawater brines, generated either by natural or anthropic processes, often cause significant environmental issues related to their disposal. A clear example is the case of brines from desalination plants, which can have severe environmental impacts on the receiving water body. On the other side, brines can represent a rich and appealing source of raw materials, especially when they are very concentrated, as it happens with bitterns (i.e. exhausted brines) produced in saltworks. In particular, magnesium concentration can reach values up to 30-40 kg/m3 of brine, which is 20-30 times that of typical seawater. An experimental campaign has been carried out in the present work for assessing the p…
Sustainable recovery of critical elements from seawater saltworks bitterns by integration of high selective sorbents and reactive precipitation and c…
2023
The availability of raw mineral resources containing elements included in the Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) list is a growing concern for the European Union. Sea mining has been identified as a promising secondary source. In particular, brines obtained in solar saltworks (bitterns) contain relevant amounts of valuable CRMs such as Mg(II), B(III), other alkaline/alkaline earth metals (Rb(I), Cs(I), Sr(II)) and transition/post-transition elements (Co(II), Ga(III), Ge(IV)). However, the low concentration of some of these elements (µg/L) requires an effort to develop recovery routes that are sustainable and economically feasible where the required chemicals and energy are produced on-site from …
A feasibility study of table salt production from seawater reverse osmosis brine
2022
The effect of Ruppia cirrhosa features on macroalgae and suspended matter in a Mediterranean shallow system
2006
Relationships among chemical–physical features, total gross suspended organic matter, coverage of the seagrass Ruppia cirrhosa and its associated algal community in eight ponds of a saltworks system of western Sicily (Mediterranean Sea) were investigated in spring and summer 2004. All biological features varied both at different levels of seagrass coverage and between seasons. A low algal diversity (46 taxa, 14.75 ± 1.41 on average) was highlighted; algal coverage and species richness showed to be negatively correlated. Ruppia cirrhosa coverage was negatively correlated with algal coverage, but positively correlated with species richness. Moreover, a significant correlation among R. cirrhos…
A comparative study of the mollusc communities of a Mediterranean saltwork (Marsala, Western Sicily.
2018
Saltworks are peculiar artificial ecosystems and holds great interest for basic research. In fact the cooling vat (the first pond of the evaporating series) is a good example of a relatively closed area and can be considered an excellent in the field open-air laboratory, namely a mesocosm reproducing a simplified model of the natural condition of hyperaline lagoons. The aim of the present work was to analyse the structure, composition and distribution of molluscan assemblages and to identify the faunistic relationships between the cooling vat and the neighbouring basin of Stagnone di Marsala, beside considering exchanges between saltwork, Stagnone di Marsala and sea, on soft- bottom, covere…