SEArcularMINE partners gathered in Palermo for their 4th General Assembly and the first in-person meeting since the start of the project in June 2020. With COVID restrictions in place on the Università degli studi di Palermo (UNIPA) campus, fruitful presentations and discussions were hosted over 2 days in the beautiful Botanic Gardens of Palermo...
The SEArcularMINE sampling campaign continues this season across the Mediterranean Basin. Project Partners iBET, based in Lisbon, returned to the nearby Samouco Saltworks this week to collect samples for analysis.
In common with many ancient saltworks across Europe, Samouco is also a protected Natural Reserve. The salt harvesting had been completed the previous week leaving the 'bittern' – the pink residual waste liquid targeted by the SEArcularMINE project - clear to see.
These samples were collected send to partners UPC in Barcelona for analysis. SEArcularMINE in developing innovative processes to recover valuable minerals from these ‘waste’ products.
As part of Work Package 2, SEArcularMINE partners are looking for ways to improve the extraction of salt and other elements from bittern solutions.
Within Task 6.2, the UNIPA and UPC team have been exploring the recovery of additional minerals from exhausted bittern solutions from saltworks using Electrodialysis with Bipolar Membranes (EDBM) technology.
SEArcularMINE project partners have made great progress with characterising bitterns from 15 saltworks located in 8 countries in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean
SEArcularMINE project partners and collaborators within WP2 have been busy collecting and processing samples from saltwork sites in Croatia and Slovenia.