SuperCritical Materials Partners with University of Michigan to Advance Offshore Uranium Recovery Systems

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SuperCritical Materials Corp. (“SuperCritical”), which recently secured an exclusive license to a patented uranium adsorbent technology for extracting uranium from seawater, today announced a research partnership with the University of Michigan to advance the mechanical design, prototyping and testing of offshore uranium recovery systems.

The research will be led by Dr. Maha Haji, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan and director of the Symbiotic Engineering and Analysis Laboratory. Dr. Haji’s research focuses on the design and multidisciplinary optimization of offshore systems that sustainably recover energy, water, food and critical minerals from the ocean.

The partnership comes as the United States seeks to expand domestic nuclear fuel capabilities and reduce its reliance on foreign uranium supply. The world’s oceans contain an estimated 4.5 billion metric tons of dissolved uranium. SuperCritical’s nearshore development program is engineering the industrial-scale and cost-competitive design for uranium extraction from seawater, capable of contributing meaningfully to U.S. nuclear-fuel supply.

The University of Michigan team will conduct detailed mechanical characterization of SuperCritical’s uranium adsorbent, evaluate methods for packing the adsorbent into nearshore systems, and develop and test multiple iterations of the equipment required to deploy and retrieve the material.

Testing is expected to take place at the University of Michigan’s Aaron Friedman Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory. The facility includes towing and wind-wave tanks capable of simulating waves, currents and other marine conditions in a controlled environment. These capabilities will allow researchers to evaluate system performance and refine prospective designs before advancing to offshore testing.

“The question is no longer simply whether uranium can be extracted from seawater. The question is whether the adsorbent can be deployed, exposed and retrieved efficiently and repeatedly at industrial scale,” said Alexander Canon Bryan, President and Chief Executive Officer of SuperCritical Materials. “Dr. Haji and the University of Michigan bring exceptional offshore engineering expertise and marine-testing capabilities to that challenge. This partnership is another signal that SuperCritical is beginning to build the fuel layer for nuclear energy.”

Dr. Haji was a lead author and principal researcher on several earlier concepts for deploying and retrieving uranium adsorbents during her work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her doctoral research included the design, fabrication and ocean testing of systems intended to recover uranium from seawater while integrating adsorbent materials with offshore infrastructure.

“Extracting critical materials from the ocean requires more than a high-performing absorbent. It requires an offshore system that can operate efficiently, reliably and responsibly under demanding marine conditions,” said Dr. Maha Haji. “This collaboration combines SuperCritical’s technology and development program with the University of Michigan’s expertise in offshore system design, hydrodynamics and experimental validation. Together, we are working to develop part of the fuel layer needed to support clean, firm energy through the next century.”

From Materials Science to Offshore Deployment

The University of Michigan research program will examine how SuperCritical’s adsorbent behaves under the mechanical stresses associated with packing, deployment, ocean exposure and retrieval.

The work is expected to progress through several stages, including:

• Detailed mechanical characterization of the adsorbent;
• Evaluation of adsorbent-packing configurations;
• Design and fabrication of deployment and retrieval prototypes;
• Hydrodynamic testing of multiple design iterations; and
• Refinement of systems for future offshore pilot deployments.

The findings are intended to inform SuperCritical’s future offshore pilot programs and the engineering work required for a subsequent feasibility study.

SuperCritical’s uranium recovery process uses adsorbent material designed to capture dissolved uranium as seawater passes across its surface. After a defined exposure period, the material is retrieved and processed to recover the captured uranium. Developing and testing systems capable of deploying and retrieving large quantities of adsorbent through repeated operating cycles is an essential step toward informing the industrial-scale design.

“This work addresses the mechanical interface between the adsorbent and the ocean,” Bryan said. “It is a critical step in moving from promising laboratory performance toward a repeatable offshore production system.”

Roadmap to Commercialization

SuperCritical’s development program is structured to answer a sequence of increasingly commercial questions: Can it scale? What will it cost? Can it compete?

The University of Michigan partnership will support the design and validation work required to advance from laboratory research to offshore piloting. Data from the program will contribute to subsequent operating- and capital- cost modeling, feasibility engineering, and the design of future demonstration-scale systems.

About SuperCritical Materials

SuperCritical Materials is developing industrial-scale nuclear fuel production infrastructure. The Company is focused on expanding future fuel availability for the growing global nuclear energy sector and strengthening U.S. energy security. To learn more, please visit: www.supercritical.one

Media Contact
Grant Draper
media@supercritical.one