Magrathea, a technology company that produces magnesium metal from seawater, has officially announced the launch of its next-generation magnesium chloride electrolyzer, which would be a machine focused on using electricity to split magnesium salts, and therefore, make magnesium metal at the company’s pilot facility in Oakland, California.
According to certain reports, the stated development will tread up a long distance to advance technical and data framework for a future scaled plant. More on the same would reveal how this entire runner will empower Magrathea to provide American companies with access of US-based critical mineral supply chains amid shifting trade policies and export controls.
Markedly enough, over the coming months, Magrathea will effectively bank upon data procured from the pilot-scale electrolyzer. This it will do to create a cutting-edge technical model which, on its part, should achieve the highest efficiencies across both environmental and economic fronts.
Beyond that, the company will also focus on obtaining process data, minimizing total electricity use, recycling energy in strategic ways, and optimizing the dehydration process. The idea behind is to offer the biggest opportunity for cost reduction across the electrolytic magnesium metal production process.
All these technical efforts will also significantly reduce the carbon footprint and operating expenditure of future commercial plants. The data and key processing learnings are further backed to streamline permitting processes for future facilities.
“Magnesium is one of the most important critical materials, but NATO countries face a dire shortage of non-China supply,” said Alex Grant, CEO of Magrathea.
Talk about the benefits of Magrathea’s latest brainchild on a slightly deeper level, we begin from the shot it will give everyone at accessing a gateway metal. We say so because magnesium is very well-known for unlocking a wide range of applications, such as stiffening aluminum in alloys, steel making, nuclear inputs, automotive, aerospace, and next-generation defense applications.
Next up, there is the promise to address a national security emergency. You see, Russia and China currently control 90% of the global primary magnesium supply with no significant producer in any NATO country. Hence, Magrathea’s move can bring US right into the thick of this mix.
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in the solution’s potential in terms of generating a first mover advantage, as Magrathea would be the most advanced producer of magnesium metal.
Joining that would be the room to tap into an already active operation. This translates to how Magrathea’s operational pilot plant in California can produce 4,000 pounds of magnesium annually at full capacity. Not just that, the company’s technology can also achieve competitive operating costs, using abundantly available seawater and renewable energy as feedstock to achieve that purpose.
Magrathea’s proprietary setup us is even understood to be carbon neutral. In essence, it produces 0 kg CO2 eq./kg magnesium compared to over 40 kg CO2 eq./kg magnesium with the incumbent Chinese process.
Then, there is the scalability aspect. Here, the company plans on collaborating with a strategic partner to deploy its technology at a scaled facility by 2027. The intention behind that is to produce up to 2 million pounds of magnesium per year, an amount enough to support the equivalent production of thousands of Black Hawk helicopters annually.
The overarching innovation also comes decked up with significant commercial traction. This is evident in Magrathea’s agreements with more than 25 companies, including 10 connected to the U.S. defense industry, an offtake agreement with a global automaker, and a resource supply agreement with Cargill.
Making the given innovation even bigger of a deal would be its investor lineup, which features the U.S. Department of Defense, Capricorn, VoLo Earth, Exor Ventures, Sam Altman, and more.
“At our core, Magrathea’s innovative technology revitalizes a proven process with our own twist for considerable efficiency improvement and expense reduction,” said Grant. “We expect to reduce the technology’s operating expenses to make it cost-competitive with alternative production methods that exist today, including in China. Magrathea is in conversations with several major defense, chemical and mining industrial players to form a strategic partnership to scale up our technology as the first new commercial-scale magnesium electrolyzer in the United States in the past 50 years.”
