Sullivan Generator: extracting gold from sea water

[Anonemous]

So I watched an old ep of Shark Tank and I saw this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4KkLj7wO8Y

He can extract gold from seawater! He actually has patents on this invention. Is this guy onto the next scientific breakthrough like that Mr. Rossi or just plain crazy? You decide.

 

[NetWareHead]

This is nothing new. The gold (and other metals) content of seawater has been known for along time. Germany attempted to extract gold from seawater to assist in payment of World War 1 reparations but abandoned efforts due to costs.

 

[PottedMeat]

processing 1 cubic mile of salt water => 1500 tons of gold

i think his calculations are just a little off

 

[rivan]

Seems legit. Anyone who sews women's leather skirts, writes music and can create a hurricane is a-ok in my book.

 

[KB]

From the comments: "his principles are sound (as seawater contains small traces of gold, iron and other minerals) although at nowhere near the concentration he has described, somewhere in the region of 4000 ppt (parts per trillion)."

Meaning the cost to access the gold is greater than the value of the gold you would receive.

Plus why does he need their million if he has inventions making billions?

 

[Anonemous]

Seems legit. Anyone who sews women's leather skirts, writes music and can create a hurricane is a-ok in my book.

Yea, that part made me chuckle.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

If they could find a cheap way to remove salt from sea water, we would have enough salt for the entire population of the world.

 

[kyrax12]

This is nothing new. The gold (and other metals) content of seawater has been known for along time. Germany attempted to extract gold from seawater to assist in payment of World War 1 reparations but abandoned efforts due to costs.

How bad were the profit margins at all with that?

 

[jagec]

From the comments: "his principles are sound (as seawater contains small traces of gold, iron and other minerals) although at nowhere near the concentration he has described, somewhere in the region of 4000 ppt (parts per trillion)."

That's the highest estimate. More recent estimates are 5-50 ppt.

http://goldfever.com/gold_sea.htm

 

[rivan]

i think his calculations are just a little off

According to this 1500 tons of gold would be about 77 cubic meters by volume.

That would be 0.0000000186 cubic miles, making it about 2 parts per billion, which Wikipedia says is WAAAY overestimating it.

A number of people have claimed to be able to economically recover gold from sea water, but so far they have all been either mistaken or acted in an intentional deception. Prescott Jernegan ran a gold-from-seawater swindle in the United States in the 1890s. A British fraudster ran the same scam in England in the early 1900s.[62] Fritz Haber (the German inventor of the Haber process) did research on the extraction of gold from sea water in an effort to help pay Germany's reparations following World War I.[63] Based on the published values of 2 to 64 ppb of gold in seawater a commercially successful extraction seemed possible. After analysis of 4,000 water samples yielding an average of 0.004 ppb it became clear that the extraction would not be possible and he stopped the project.[64] No commercially viable mechanism for performing gold extraction from sea water has yet been identified. Gold synthesis is not economically viable and is unlikely to become so in the foreseeable future.

 

[Anonemous]

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=273772

Quick Facts About Inventor Mark Sullivan

Full name: Mark Sullivan.

Location: Lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Invention pitched on ABC's Shark Tank Show:

"Generator Employing the Coriolis Effect."
United States Patent: US 6,532,740.

Shark Tank episode featuring Mark:

Will air April 13, 2012.
Mark chosen from 24,000+ applicants.

Profession: Mark is an inventor who creates and designs products for clients throughout the U.S.

What has he invented? To date, well over 1,000 of Mark's ideas have been turned into viable products, and hundreds more of his inventions remain "on the drawing board" awaiting funding. Many of these inventions have dramatically boosted the overall success and profitability of companies in varied industries.

Inventions created for diverse industries, including:

aerospace
nephrology
cardiology
sports medicine
dentistry
cosmetic surgery
orthopedics
mechanics
screenplays
material science
Note: Mark's Alternative Therapies research program has helped many patients develop their own personal alternative rehabilitation techniques for coping with their conditions.

Education:
Undergraduate: Bachelor in Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin.
Graduate Studies: University of Texas at Austin, Biomedical Engineering; University of Texas
Health Science Center, Physiology.

Awards & Honors:
CPS Energy: Innovator Award.
Two academic awards bestowed by University of Texas at Austin College of Engineering.
Papers published in various scientific journals.
Scored in the Top 1% of the National Education Development Test (N.E.D.T).

Memberships:
Life member of American MENSA, the high I.Q. society for people with the top 2% I.Q. scores. Mark's Stanford-Binet I.Q. score of 151 places him in the top half-percent of the population ("very superior intelligence").
Texas Biomedical Instrumentation Society.
IATSE Local 484 (labor union for the entertainment & related industries).
Broadcast Music, Inc. (B.M.I).

Personal: Happily married with children.

Hmm Mensa, graduate studies...

 

[EagleKeeper]

What has he invented? To date, well over 1,000 of Mark's ideas have been turned into viable products, and hundreds more of his inventions remain "on the drawing board" awaiting funding. Many of these inventions have dramatically boosted the overall success and profitability of companies in varied industries.

Inventions created for diverse industries, including:

aerospace
nephrology
cardiology
sports medicine
dentistry
cosmetic surgery
orthopedics
mechanics
screenplays
material science
Note: Mark's Alternative Therapies research program has helped many patients develop their own personal alternative rehabilitation techniques for coping with their conditions.

Looking through the patent list; many are repeats on something that he originally did.

Some interesting ideas - but patents are ideas, not always working useful models.

 

[Linflas]

If you have ever been to a white sand beach and noticed that little strip of dark stuff that remains after each wave rolls back those are "heavy minerals". There will be all sorts of metals in small quantities in that stuff.

 

[chusteczka]

Google Patents - Generator employing the Coriolis effect

Wikipedia - Coriolis Effect


The idea of alluvial gold is not new. In Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts quested for the golden fleece. It is thought that using a wool hide of sheep or goat was common to remove alluvial gold from mountain streams in the region of Georgia, to the east of the Black sea.

Wikipedia - Golden Fleece

A more widespread interpretation relates it to a method of washing gold from streams that is well attested (but only from c. 5th century BC) in the region of Georgia to the east of the Black Sea. Sheep fleeces, sometimes stretched over a wood frame, would be submerged in the stream, and gold flecks borne down from upstream placer deposits would collect in them. The fleeces would then be hung in trees to dry before the gold was shaken or combed out. Alternatively, the fleeces would be used on washing tables in alluvial mining of gold or on washing tables at deep gold mines. Judging by the very early gold objects from a range of cultures, washing for gold is a very old human activity. Thus Strabo describes the way in which gold could be washed:

It is said that in their country gold is carried down by the mountain torrents, and that the barbarians obtain it by means of perforated troughs and fleecy skins, and that this is the origin of the myth of the golden fleece—unless they call them Iberians, by the same name as the western Iberians, from the gold mines in both countries.

Another interpretation rests on references in some versions to purple or purple-dyed cloth. The purple dye extracted from snails of the Murex and related species was highly prized in ancient times, and clothing made of cloth dyed with Tyrian purple was a mark of great wealth and high station (hence the phrase “royal purple&#8221. The association of gold with purple is thus natural and occurs frequently in the literature.

However, archeologists have rejected these interpretations as ahistorical. An attempt to construct a most plausible explanation by locating it in what is known of the culture in which the story arose points to the interpretation that the Golden Fleece represents the ideas of kingship and legitimacy; hence the journey of Jason to find it, in order to restore legitimate rule to Iolcos.

 

[Fayd]

If they could find a cheap way to remove salt from sea water, we would have enough salt for the entire population of the world.

we do.. it's called evaporation.

it's easier and cleaner to just do solution mining, though.

 

[K7SN]

I played with this some a long time ago. Since a laser beam at the correct frequency induces a quantum reaction (the element of compound absorbs energy of the laser and wondered if it were possible to somehow utilize this fact to extract compounds and elements from seawater (The modern alchemist dream) since we detect SO3 and Ozone in the atmosphere by measuring (reflected laser frequencies) the amount of acid rain and ozone in the atmosphere (absorbed instead of reflected) and after accounting for atmosphere and other air pollutions we can actually quantify levels a parts per trillion better thanin situ test of flying through the air in a helicopter (cheaper also). I had the honor of writing the software and on my spare time pondered other uses of our research. Nothing is happening any time soon on this approach.

. I played with saltwater using the average amount of elements throughout the main oceans (salinity varies depending on the ocean, depth of extraction and time of year). If you could extract gold to get just 2.5 ounces you would also get:

7.3 ounces of lead and 7.3 ounces gallium (nifty element melts in your hand)
36.5 ounces of mercury (don't need that in the ocean).
48 ounces of chromium
68 ounces of silver
13.6 pounds of copper and 13.6 pounds of tin
15 .2 pounds of aluminum and 15 .2 pounds of titanium
28.8 pounds of Vanadium
50.1 pounds of uranium
51.6 pounds of iron
100 pounds of Nickel
152 pounds Molybdenum (worth a lot more than 2.5 ounces of gold)
1.29 Tons of lithium (Think of the profit and batteries you could make)
22 Tons of silicon
34 tons of boron (Think of the borax millions of the late 18th century)
121 tons of nitrogen (You could fertilize the world)
212 Tons of Carbon (but that is already banked in the ocean)
2977 Tons of Potassium
3121 Tons of calcium
6865 tons of sulfur (Main reason why seawater smells as it does)
9796 Tons of magnesium (Cheap magnesium could make lightweight and efficient transportation)

To me gold seems like the least of the resources we could extract from sea water.

Doesn't seem there is a immediate future in using laser technology of today and we must wait for the physicists to further understand the possibilities within the atom.

Lately I've watched the advances in nanotechnology as perhaps 22nd century solution for desalination and the eventual extraction of resources from the ocean but it won't happen in my lifetime.

 

[dud]

I played with this some a long time ago. Since a laser beam at the correct frequency induces a quantum reaction (the element of compound absorbs energy of the laser and wondered if it were possible to somehow utilize this fact to extract compounds and elements from seawater (The modern alchemist dream) since we detect SO3 and Ozone in the atmosphere by measuring (reflected laser frequencies) the amount of acid rain and ozone in the atmosphere (absorbed instead of reflected) and after accounting for atmosphere and other air pollutions we can actually quantify levels a parts per trillion better thanin situ test of flying through the air in a helicopter (cheaper also). I had the honor of writing the software and on my spare time pondered other uses of our research. Nothing is happening any time soon on this approach.

. I played with saltwater using the average amount of elements throughout the main oceans (salinity varies depending on the ocean, depth of extraction and time of year). If you could extract gold to get just 2.5 ounces you would also get:

7.3 ounces of lead and 7.3 ounces gallium (nifty element melts in your hand)
36.5 ounces of mercury (don't need that in the ocean).
48 ounces of chromium
68 ounces of silver
13.6 pounds of copper and 13.6 pounds of tin
15 .2 pounds of aluminum and 15 .2 pounds of titanium
28.8 pounds of Vanadium
50.1 pounds of uranium
51.6 pounds of iron
100 pounds of Nickel
152 pounds Molybdenum (worth a lot more than 2.5 ounces of gold)
1.29 Tons of lithium (Think of the profit and batteries you could make)
22 Tons of silicon
34 tons of boron (Think of the borax millions of the late 18th century)
121 tons of nitrogen (You could fertilize the world)
212 Tons of Carbon (but that is already banked in the ocean)
2977 Tons of Potassium
3121 Tons of calcium
6865 tons of sulfur (Main reason why seawater smells as it does)
9796 Tons of magnesium (Cheap magnesium could make lightweight and efficient transportation)

To me gold seems like the least of the resources we could extract from sea water.

Doesn't seem there is a immediate future in using laser technology of today and we must wait for the physicists to further understand the possibilities within the atom.

Lately I've watched the advances in nanotechnology as perhaps 22nd century solution for desalination and the eventual extraction of resources from the ocean but it won't happen in my lifetime.

If true and could be done in an economically viable manner can you imagine the shock this would have to the commodities market/demand side? Focus just on gold. If it could be cheaply extracted from seawater the market for it (gold) would collapse as more product floods the market.

 

[Ken g6]

If the ocean doesn't have gold in sufficient concentration, what about rivers? Every old gold-panning stream should have gold in much higher concentrations than the ocean. Even if they're all "panned out" there should still be gold in the water, right?

 

[sdifox]

How about he just concentrate more on extracting the water cheaply?

 

[NetWareHead]

If the ocean doesn't have gold in sufficient concentration, what about rivers? Every old gold-panning stream should have gold in much higher concentrations than the ocean. Even if they're all "panned out" there should still be gold in the water, right?

The oceans theoretically contains higher concentrations of gold then river water. Fresh water eventualyl flows to the oceans and through the course of time, have added and added to the oceanic mineral concentration. Short answer, it would most likely be less profitable due to even lower concentration than the oceans.

 

[Blitzvogel]

I played with this some a long time ago. Since a laser beam at the correct frequency induces a quantum reaction (the element of compound absorbs energy of the laser and wondered if it were possible to somehow utilize this fact to extract compounds and elements from seawater (The modern alchemist dream) since we detect SO3 and Ozone in the atmosphere by measuring (reflected laser frequencies) the amount of acid rain and ozone in the atmosphere (absorbed instead of reflected) and after accounting for atmosphere and other air pollutions we can actually quantify levels a parts per trillion better thanin situ test of flying through the air in a helicopter (cheaper also). I had the honor of writing the software and on my spare time pondered other uses of our research. Nothing is happening any time soon on this approach.

. I played with saltwater using the average amount of elements throughout the main oceans (salinity varies depending on the ocean, depth of extraction and time of year). If you could extract gold to get just 2.5 ounces you would also get:

7.3 ounces of lead and 7.3 ounces gallium (nifty element melts in your hand)
36.5 ounces of mercury (don't need that in the ocean).
48 ounces of chromium
68 ounces of silver
13.6 pounds of copper and 13.6 pounds of tin
15 .2 pounds of aluminum and 15 .2 pounds of titanium
28.8 pounds of Vanadium
50.1 pounds of uranium
51.6 pounds of iron
100 pounds of Nickel
152 pounds Molybdenum (worth a lot more than 2.5 ounces of gold)
1.29 Tons of lithium (Think of the profit and batteries you could make)
22 Tons of silicon
34 tons of boron (Think of the borax millions of the late 18th century)
121 tons of nitrogen (You could fertilize the world)
212 Tons of Carbon (but that is already banked in the ocean)
2977 Tons of Potassium
3121 Tons of calcium
6865 tons of sulfur (Main reason why seawater smells as it does)
9796 Tons of magnesium (Cheap magnesium could make lightweight and efficient transportation)

To me gold seems like the least of the resources we could extract from sea water.

Doesn't seem there is a immediate future in using laser technology of today and we must wait for the physicists to further understand the possibilities within the atom.

Lately I've watched the advances in nanotechnology as perhaps 22nd century solution for desalination and the eventual extraction of resources from the ocean but it won't happen in my lifetime.

Ok, but assuming we start extracting elements from sea water. My assumption is that we could never go through seawater fast enough to reduce the amount of mercury and other "because of man" issues that are suspended in it. But let us say we get the technology, and we start extracting every element we can or we start pick and choosing. Along with the salt, are there any naturally occurring minerals in the ocean that should not be overly extracted?

 

[lxskllr]

Along with the salt, are there any naturally occurring minerals in the ocean that should not be overly extracted?

Most of them? There's a lot of animals in the ocean, and dicking around with the chemical composition of their environment on an industrial scale is sure to mess something up. Stuff like mercury and cadmium are probably ok, but then we'd be stuck with a bunch of mercury and cadmium.

 

[BUTCH1]

OP' link taken down by YT.

 

[Jeff7]

If true and could be done in an economically viable manner can you imagine the shock this would have to the commodities market/demand side? Focus just on gold. If it could be cheaply extracted from seawater the market for it (gold) would collapse as more product floods the market.

We survived when the aluminum market went through the same thing - it was once considered to be a very rare and valuable metal, up until the late 1800s when a new extraction process was invented. Now it's a throwaway material.

 

[MongGrel]

Maybe Rick Scott is doing that on the side with our failed desalinization plant here locally, wouldn't be a surprise.