Brine and Salt

Seawater desalination creates brine, a concentrated liquid byproduct that's twice as saline as seawater. After desalination, each cubic meter of seawater creates half a cubic meter of drinkable freshwater and a half a cubic meter of brine. If the seawater's initial salinity is 48,000 parts per million, the brine will be 96,000 parts per million.

Most desalination operations merely dump this highly concentrated salt brine back into the ocean. But unless this is done far offshore, it can negatively impact coastal marine habitats.

Instead of dumping byproduct brine into the ocean, Acquasol 1 will harvest salt from the brine using traditional solar salt harvesting techniques. Twice as much salt can be produced in an evaporation pond using brine rather than seawater.