michael26-Mar-2026
Seashell saviors: discarded #oyster shells can clean polluted #water by removing #rareEarths
That makes sense, return your #seaShells to the sea ...
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1121591
Seashell saviors: discarded oyster shells can clean polluted water by removing "rare earths"
New research from a team at Trinity College Dublin has unearthed a cheap and environmentally friendly new option for removing pollutants from our water. The key? Oyster shells that would ordinarily end up in landfill sites after consumption. The research, just published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, shows that waste seashells – especially those from oysters – can capture and remove rare earth elements from polluted water. And what’s more, they do it entirely naturally, turning them into stable mineral crystals. In lab experiments, the team exposed crushed shells (mussels, cockles and oysters) to solutions containing rare earth elements. They discovered that the shells trigger a chemical reaction such that the minerals in the shell dissolve and are replaced by new minerals containing the rare earth elements. In effect, the shells act as a “template” that converts dissolved metals into solid mineral crystals that remain locked inside the shell material. Among the materials tested, oyster shells performed particularly well. Their natural microstructure allows the chemical reaction to continue deeper into the shell, capturing significantly more rare earth elements than other shells. The results suggest that shell waste could potentially be used as a low-cost and environmentally friendly material to help treat contaminated water – or evern to recover valuable metals from industrial streams.
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