A water plant that recovers — instead of one that disposes.
Most treatment plants exist to get rid of things. A Desalus recovery plant exists to keep them. On inland water at 5,000–50,000 mg/L TDS, it recovers over 99% of the water plus the nutrients and minerals in a fully circular loop. Desalus funds, builds, owns and operates the plant — you buy only clean water at an attractive rate per thousand gallons, and Desalus markets the recovered nutrients as fertilizer.
A disposal plant throws value away on purpose.
The conventional inland water plant is designed around getting rid of the problem — concentrate it, pond it, haul it, inject it. Every one of those steps is a deliberate decision to discard water, nutrients and minerals you paid to extract.
- Water becomes waste. What conventional RO can't recover inland is concentrated and disposed of, not reused.
- Nutrients become liability. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and minerals end up in a pond instead of a product.
- The plant pays forever. Disposal is a recurring cost with no recovered value to offset it.
Linear disposal vs. circular recovery
A recovery plant closes the loop — the water and the nutrients come back as product, not problems.
Water, nutrients, minerals — recovered, not discarded.
A Desalus recovery plant treats your stream as a resource. Here's what comes back out of it as product.
The water — 99%+ of it
Nearly every drop is recovered as clean water and returned to beneficial use, instead of being concentrated and disposed.
The nutrients
Nitrogen, potassium and other plant nutrients are recovered into farm-grade fertilizer instead of ending up in a pond.
The minerals
Dissolved salts and minerals are recovered as pure product — closing the loop and eliminating the reject stream entirely.
Lower water cost, zero capital
No capital outlay and no operating burden — Desalus funds, builds and runs the plant. You pay only for clean water at an attractive rate per thousand gallons; Desalus monetizes the recovered nutrients, which is what keeps your rate low.
The compliance
With nothing discharged, there's no brine to permit and no disposal liability — recovery makes regulators comfortable.
Delivered as a service
The recovery plant is engineered, operated and optimized around your water — built on the IChemE award-winning Desalus systems.
Recovery across the whole inland brackish band
From mildly brackish groundwater to near-saturation mine and process water, a Desalus recovery plant recovers water and nutrients from 5,000 to 50,000 mg/L total dissolved solids.
The richer the dissolved load in this band, the more nutrients and minerals there are to recover.
Disposal plant vs. recovery plant
The same source water, two opposite philosophies.
| Resource | Desalus | Evaporation ponds | Conventional RO plant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water | 99%+ recovered | Lost to air | Partly disposed |
| Nutrients | Recovered | Ponded | Rejected |
| Minerals / salts | Recovered | Buried | Brine |
| Loop | Circular | Linear | Linear |
| Disposal liability | None | High | Ongoing |
| Capital you outlay | None — Desalus owns & operates | You fund & build | You fund & build |
| What you pay for | Clean water, per 1,000 gal | Disposal, forever | Power + disposal |
| Your all-in water cost | Lowest & predictable | Highest | High |
From source water to recovered resources in four steps.
It starts with your numbers. Send Desalus a full-panel water quality and volume report, and you'll see exactly what your recovery plant can pull back out of the stream.
Get a recovery modelShare your full-panel report
Send your water quality and volume data through the Desalus contact form. The richer the panel, the sharper the recovery model.
Get a recovery model
Desalus quantifies recovered water, recovered nutrients, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the capital and disposal costs you avoid on your exact source water.
Desalus builds & operates the plant
Desalus funds, installs and runs KNeW Process, Zix-Zak ion exchange and No-Briner as a circular recovery plant on your site — no capex or operating burden for you.
Buy back clean water, waste-free
You purchase clean water at your agreed rate per thousand gallons, and nothing is left to dispose of. Desalus markets the recovered nutrients as fertilizer, which is what keeps your water price low.
Raise profit. Eliminate waste. Flourish community.
A recovery plant doesn't just clean water — it keeps everything of value. The award-winning Desalus systems make the circular loop pay.
What people ask about recovery plants
What is a water resource recovery plant?
It's a plant designed to recover resources rather than dispose of them. Instead of concentrating and discarding what conventional treatment can't reuse, a Desalus recovery plant pulls back over 99% of the water as clean water and recovers the dissolved nutrients and minerals as farm-grade fertilizer — a fully circular loop with no reject stream.
What exactly gets recovered?
Three things: the water (99%+, returned to beneficial use), the nutrients (nitrogen, potassium and others, recovered into fertilizer), and the minerals/salts (recovered as pure product instead of brine). Nothing is left over to pond, haul or inject.
How is this different from a normal treatment plant?
A conventional plant is built around disposal — its job ends when the waste is concentrated and sent away. A recovery plant is built around keeping value, so the same constituents are recovered rather than dumped. Desalus owns and operates the plant and markets the recovered nutrients as fertilizer, which lets it deliver your clean water at a lower rate — turning your cost center into affordable, predictable water.
How does the Desalus model work — what do I actually pay?
Desalus capitalizes, builds, owns, operates and maintains the recovery plant — you invest no capital and run nothing. You simply purchase the clean water it produces, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons. Because Desalus recovers and sells the resulting fertilizer, we can price your water below conventional treat-and-dispose alternatives while leaving zero waste. The fertilizer revenue is Desalus'; your benefit is cheaper water and no liability.
Will it work on my water?
Send Desalus a full-panel water quality and volume report through the contact form. You'll receive a site-specific recovery model showing recovered water, recovered nutrients, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons and the costs you avoid — before any commitment. It's built for inland brackish water at 5,000–50,000 mg/L TDS.
See what your recovery plant can recover.
Send Desalus a full-panel water quality and volume report and get a site-specific model of the clean water you'd buy back — and the disposal and capital costs you'd shed — from the stream you're currently throwing away.
No obligation. The report drives a site-specific model of recovery, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons and the costs you avoid.
- Recovered clean water quantified for your exact TDS and volumes
- Your attractive clean-water rate per 1,000 gallons
- Avoided brine, pond, disposal and capital costs
- Zero capital outlay — Desalus funds, builds & operates it all