APPARATUS FOR ADSORBING RARE METAL DISSOLVED IN SEAWATER BY UTILIZATION OF WAVE

PURPOSE:To efficiently adsorb a rare metal dissolved in seawater by taking-in a large quantity of seawater, by receiving an adsorbing chamber packed with an adsorbent at the packing ratio corresponding to the characteristic of the adsorbent in a structure not moving up and down along with a wave but performing relative motion. CONSTITUTION:An adsorbing chamber 1 and a buoyancy chamber 4 are provided under a wave surface 7 and columns 5 pierce through the wave surface 7 to adjust the whole submerged wt. and whole buoyancy of the apparatus to form structure making it possible to hold both chambers at draft. A scarce metal adsorbent 3 has a granular shape having specific gravity almost the same with that of seawater and water passing nets 2 provided to the upper and lower surfaces of the adsorbing chamber 1 under tension have a mesh size equal to or less than the average particle size of the rare metal adsorbent 3 in order to suppress the washing-away of said adsorbent. As mentioned above, by forming the large volume structure of the adsorbing chamber 1 and the buoyancy chamber 3 under seawater, the adsorbing chamber 1 is prevented from moving up and down along with seawater and a large quantity of seawater can be made to flow into the adsorbing chamber 1.