Tidal Metals today announced the completion of its $8.5 million Series Seed funding round led by DCVC with participation from First Spark Ventures and Bidra Innovation Ventures. The financing will fund the development and construction of a commercial pilot plant to demonstrate Tidal Metals’ breakthrough technology for extracting primary magnesium metal from seawater.
Magnesium is the lightest structural metal, weighing 75% less than steel, 50% less than titanium, and 33% less than aluminum. Identified as a Critical Material by the U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense, and Interior, magnesium is essential for industrialized economies, as it is critical to steel and titanium refining, aluminum alloying, transportation, aerospace, and defense. Today, 90% of the global magnesium metal supply comes from China, where it is mined and refined using environmentally destructive and thermal-energy-intensive processes. Consequently, magnesium has the largest carbon footprint of all structural metals, which, along with magnesium’s high cost and uncertainty of supply, has become a growing concern for global manufacturers.
Tidal Metals has developed a revolutionary technology that will produce magnesium metal at competitive prices using a carbon neutral and environmentally harmless process. Magnesium is the second most abundant metal in seawater, averaging 1.3 kilograms per cubic meter. However, historical techniques that relied on chemical extraction proved to be economically uncompetitive and environmentally harmful. Without new innovations, the world cannot recover any of the magnesium contained in discharged desalination brine each year, estimated at over one hundred times the current global magnesium production of one million tons per year.
Tidal Metals’ patented technology concentrates and extracts magnesium salt in seawater using efficient physical processes such as filtration, crystallization, and dehydration, followed by electrolysis which converts magnesium salt into metal. These processes use only seawater and electricity. Nothing is added to the water, and no waste is generated. When powered by electricity from renewable sources, Tidal Metals’ magnesium will be fully sustainable, decarbonized, and virtually unlimited.
Dr. Howard Yuh, CEO of Tidal Metals, said: “After years of applied research and development, Tidal Metals now has the technology to fundamentally change the techno-economics of mineral recovery from seawater and brines. Our focus on magnesium metal was driven by the dire need to expand magnesium production, lower its cost, and provide a much-needed solution to decarbonize this industry. As the world faces water scarcity for billions, we also see huge benefits to reducing the cost of desalinated water through the coproduction of high value minerals such as magnesium.”
In furtherance of its waste-to-value goals, Tidal Metals recently advanced to the fourth and final round of the HeroX Solar Desalination Prize sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. After a rigorous and highly competitive evaluation, the DOE selected Tidal Metals for its potential to achieve pipeline parity for desalinated water by capturing the value of magnesium in seawater desalination brine. “We are thrilled two more teams have advanced as finalists in the Solar Desalination Prize, including Tidal Metals (formerly GreenBlu, Inc.),” says Shane Powers, prize lead from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office. “Tidal Metals’ innovative work will encourage businesses to become zero-liquid discharge facilities, supporting water security and widespread, commercial use of solar-thermal desalination facilities. We look forward to what they will accomplish in the final phase of the competition.”
Earl Jones, Chairman of Tidal Metals and a DCVC Operating Partner, said: “Magnesium is a critical metal for aerospace and defense and the lightweighting of transportation and mobility solutions. Tidal Metals can fundamentally change this industry by providing an assured supply of low-cost, carbon neutral magnesium metal that does not require terrestrial mining. Not only will Tidal Metals decarbonize a multi-billion-dollar industry, but it will catalyze growth with new applications for magnesium metal as well as innovation in magnesium alloys.”
About Tidal Metals
Tidal Metals, founded by three PhD scientists from MIT, Princeton and Wisconsin, is a deep-tech company based in New Jersey that hasdeveloped a breakthrough suite of innovations for producing critical minerals and metals from seawater and brines – with no waste, no carbon emissions, and no harm to the environment. Tidal Metals’ first application is producing magnesium metal from seawater using only electricity to unlock an economically competitive and unlimited supply of this critical, structural metal needed for lightweighting transportation, national security, hydrogen storage, and manufacturing other structural metals. Visit us at www.tidalmetals.com. Watch our intro video at https://youtu.be/XKdRfaBst6k.
About DCVC
DCVC is deep tech venture capital. Over more than a dozen years, the firm has backed brilliant entrepreneurs using computational approaches to solve trillion-dollar problems in the real world across a broad set of industries, especially those that haven’t seen material progress in decades. With billions of dollars of assets under management, DCVC builds long-term relationships with the founders it backs. The firm has been with many of its companies from their very start — and through to their recognition by the public markets as category-defining businesses. For more information, please visitwww.dcvc.com,or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter @DCVC.
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