| Abstract |
Water is a key element of the global water-energy nexus and a crucial foundation of economic globalization. Water, as an essential resource for humans, carries diverse valuable and scarce resources. Mining these resources from the water will be of significance for material flows of resources, which will substantially accelerate a transition to sustainable and circular economies. Compared with conventional water sources, various unconventional water sources such as seawater, brines, and industrial waste streams are considered economically nonviable, yet still worthy of extraction. Mining water, energy, valuable nutrients, minerals, metals, and chemical products from these sources is valuable and viable. There is a growing need for introducing innovative technologies, processes, models, and systems to effectively extract, reclaim, and reuse resources from diverse types of water sources. There also demands a comprehensive techno-economic analysis, assessment of life-cycle impacts, and benchmarking of these new technologies against their traditional counterparts. |
