Photo: CGTN / iStock
Resources on Monday released a report highlighting new progress in the
country’s utilization of seawater, while also shedding light on the huge
reserve of strategic minerals contained in seawater and the nation’s
plans to expand the extraction of such resources through technological
progress.
According to the report, China has successfully
achieved kilogram-scale extraction of uranium from real ocean
environments. Additionally, domestic research institutes, universities
and enterprises have made breakthroughs in the fundamental theories and
key technologies concerning the extraction of lithium, uranium,
deuterium and other trace elements.
Global uranium reserves in
seawater are estimated at about 4.5 billion tonnes, over a thousand
times the known land-based reserves.
As a strategic emerging
industry, China’s seawater desalination and comprehensive utilization
sector as a whole is growing steadily, the report noted.
According
to Xiang Wenxi, director of the Institute of Seawater Desalination and
Multipurpose Utilization located in north China’s Tianjin Municipality,
China currently has 167 desalination projects with a total capacity of
3.077 million tonnes per day. Meanwhile, the annual volume of seawater
used for industrial cooling purpose has reached 193.36 billion tonnes,
an increase of 86.4 percent from 2020.
During the 15th Five-Year
Plan period (2026-2030), China will promote the iteration of relevant
technology and equipment and build up technological reserves for
extracting strategic elements from seawater, Xiang said.
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