seawater-extraction
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Tidal Metals
Tidal Metals is a Trenton/Hamilton, New Jersey deep-tech company that extracts primary magnesium metal from seawater and desalination brine using nothing but renewable electricity and physical processes - no ore mining, no carbon emissions, and no waste stream. Founded by three plasma-physics PhDs who met at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the company aims to rebuild a domestic U.S. magnesium supply chain currently dominated by China, serving aerospace, defense, and next-generation automotive manufacturing.
Howard Yuh
Howard Yuh is a plasma physicist turned founder who is trying to break China's grip on magnesium by pulling the metal out of the ocean. As CEO and cofounder of Tidal Metals, the New Jersey deeptech he spun out of his earlier desalination venture GreenBlu, he uses an adsorption temperature-swing vapor pump - a trick borrowed from fusion research - to extract magnesium salt from seawater with only electricity, no mining, and no waste. The company raised $8.5M in seed funding led by DCVC in 2024 and won the World Economic Forum's Sustainable Mining Challenge the same year.