SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — December 5, 2019 — Energy Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERII) today announced total awards of $16.6 million (USD) to supply PX® Pressure Exchangers® (PX) and related equipment and services to multiple desalination facilities in the Middle East. The awards include Energy Recovery’s first contract to support the conversion of a mega-project (>50,000 cubic meters per day) thermal desalination facility to more cost-efficient seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination technology.

“These awards cap a record-breaking year for Energy Recovery, and we are pleased to see a trend we have long anticipated – the conversion of thermal desalination capacity to large-scale SWRO facilities – move from our pipeline to our backlog,” said Robert Mao, Energy Recovery Chairman and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer. “Much of the Middle East’s installed capacity is thermal desalination, which was largely built before technologies like the PX greatly improved the economics of SWRO. As older thermal desalination facilities reach the end of their useful life, owners and operators are evaluating the path forward. These facilities are needed to maintain current water supply, so they cannot be decommissioned without a replacement plan. Longer-term, the current thermal capacity of more than 20 million cubic meters per day creates an additional layer of growth potential for Energy Recovery.”

Shipments for these awards are expected to begin in Q1 2020 and continue throughout 2020. Energy Recovery estimates the PXs supplied to these facilities will prevent more than 600,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. The facilities will collectively produce over 700,000 cubic meters of water per day.

“New-build SWRO facilities are driving economic development and providing much needed potable water across the Middle East. In parallel, older thermal facilities are almost universally choosing to replace or augment thermal production with SWRO technologies and are turning to Energy Recovery to help create a more cost- and carbon-efficient facility,” shared Energy Recovery Vice President of Water Rodney Clemente. “Although costs vary based on local conditions, thermal water production costs are on average two times higher than SWRO. Given these savings, even some newer thermal facilities with years of useful life remaining are evaluating a switch to SWRO. As this trend plays out in the coming years, we expect customers to continue to turn to the PX, which provides the lowest lifecycle cost of any energy recovery device on the market.”

About Energy Recovery

Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERII) is an energy solutions provider to industrial fluid flow markets worldwide. Energy Recovery solutions recycle and convert wasted pressure energy into a usable asset and preserve pumps that are subject to hostile processing environments. With award-winning technology, Energy Recovery simplifies complex industrial systems while improving productivity, profitability, and efficiency within the water, oil & gas, and chemical processing industries. Energy Recovery products annually save customers $2 billion (USD) and eliminate more than 11.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Headquartered in the Bay Area, Energy Recovery has offices in Dubai, Houston, Madrid, and Shanghai. For more information about the Company, please visit www.energyrecovery.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain matters discussed in this press release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including expectations regarding the timing of shipments of the orders, reductions in power consumption from the technology, and our expectation that customers will continue to turn to the PX. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us and on management’s beliefs, assumptions, estimates, or projections and are not guarantees of future events or results.  Because such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, our actual results may differ materially from the predictions in these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are made as of today, and we assume no obligation to update such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.