Overview
ARBOK-Boron Separation (ASB) isolates boron from saltwater and brine — seawater, geothermal brines, salt-lake deposits — using a low-energy, zero-waste evaporation process. In one pass it produces potable water, dry salt, and commercial-grade boron compounds, replacing high-cost, chemically intensive boron mining. Because it processes the whole input stream rather than rejecting brine like reverse osmosis, it makes boron recovery economical even at low concentrations, integrated with desalination and broader resource recovery.
Applications
Primary use cases: boron recovery from seawater, geothermal brine, and salt-flat deposits; combined desalination + mineral recovery in remote/off-grid sites.
Industries and users: critical-materials suppliers, battery and semiconductor supply chains, geothermal operators, glass and fertilizer producers.
Scale: modular 20-ft units; single installation to multi-unit cascades at high-concentration sites (e.g., Uyuni Salt Flats, Salton Sea).
Operating Principle
Brine is fed into a deep-vacuum chamber where water evaporates at ambient temperature; the full stream is processed and the dissolved load separates into dry salts and isolated boron compounds, with potable water condensed off. No reverse-osmosis pressure, no membranes, no chemical reagents.
Limitations: recovery rate scales with feed boron concentration; element-selective recovery (lithium, bromine, uranium) still under optimization.
Key Parameters
Energy: ~0.72 kWh/ton processed. Input: seawater, brine, geothermal or lake deposits. Processes 100 % of input water (vs 40–60 % fresh-water yield for RO).
Boron concentration handled: ~5 mg/L (seawater); up to ~500 mg/kg (Uyuni brine); ~200 mg/kg (Salton Sea geothermal brine).
Output per 200 t/day unit: ~1 kg/day boron from seawater; ~2.3 kg/day from medium brine; up to 20+ t/day from high-concentration sites.
Form factor: vertical 20-ft tank, footprint ~9 m², expandable.
By-products: drinking water, table salt, isolated boron, and potentially lithium, bromine, uranium.
Architecture and Components
Vacuum evaporation/separation chamber; condensation unit (potable water); dry-salt and boron extraction train; control system (PLC/automation). Modular 20-ft vertical tank, scalable by unit count.
Advantages
Technical: whole-stream processing, no brine reject; no membranes or reagents; multi-product output from one unit.
Economic: ~0.72 kWh/ton energy; boron recovery viable even at seawater concentrations; revenue stacking from water + salt + boron (+ optional metals).
Environmental: zero-waste, dry separated salts, no chemical effluent.
Strategic: domestic boron supply from owned brine resources; pairs desalination with critical-materials recovery.
Integrations
Co-locates with desalination, geothermal, and salt-lake operations; SCADA/PLC ready; can cascade with other ARBOK brine-recovery units.
Deployment & Operation
Steps: brine assay → unit sizing → on-site install → commissioning. Open-air, ambient temperature, renewable-compatible. Continuous, automated, minimal staffing.
TRL
Proposed TRL 4 — ⚠ confirm. Evidence available: defined process with site-specific concentration and output figures on the validated ARBOK vacuum platform. Not yet evidenced: a dedicated boron field/prototype unit with measured boron output. Remaining steps: prototype on real brine, selective-recovery optimization, reference site.
Market Potential
Boron is strategically critical for batteries, semiconductors, nuclear, aviation, glass, fertilizers, and quantum materials. Supply is geographically concentrated; brine-integrated recovery opens new domestic sources, especially where desalination or geothermal already operates.
Typical Project Economics
OPEX driven by ~0.72 kWh/ton energy; minimal consumables. Revenue from boron plus co-products (water, salt, optional metals). Project CAPEX/payback site-specific (concentration-dependent); high-grade sites (Uyuni-class) reach multi-tonne/day boron per cascade. (Detailed economics to be modelled per site.)
Risk Factors
Output economics depend on feed concentration; selective recovery of co-elements still maturing; offtake/qualification of recovered boron grade; conservative mining incumbents; needs prototype reference.
Related Technologies
ARBOK-Lithium · ARBOK-Rubidium · ARBOK-Cesium · Vacuum Osmosis · ARBOK-SODA · ARBOK-VC (Vacuum Cracking)