Resource Recovery

In wastewater treatment, the goal is to remove minerals, salts, and pollutants to produce clean water that is suitable for drinking, agriculture, industrial applications, or to return to the environment. Brine mining can help reduce cost and improve sustainability associated with leftover brine.

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Turning waste into valuable goods

Brine (often seen as a waste product) can contain valuable and sometimes rare metals, salts, and minerals that are highly sought after in other industries, including lithium-ion battery manufacturing, agriculture, textiles, construction, and many more. In some cases, the mineral byproducts of treating water can be more valuable than the produced freshwater itself. The types of resources that can be recovered from wastewater treatment are extensive, and their uses are nearly endless. Even manure from animal farming can be turned into biogas and fertilizer, while recovering water suitable for environmental discharge.

While resource recovery (also known as brine mining, nutrient recovery, resource extraction, and waste valorization) has been utilized in some form for decades, in recent years there has been a surge of interest and investment in maximizing the potential of this untapped resource. Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology has been used to recover all of the resources listed here, and utilizing energy recovery devices (ERDs) within RO systems significantly reduces the energy consumption and costs required to treat wastewater and extract these valuable minerals. Some of our customers have already utilized separation technology to successfully extract and commercialize minerals from their waste stream, while also further reducing project emissions for rebates and potential carbon credits.