As Corpus Christi reconsiders the Inner Harbor desalination project to address the region’s drought, some residents are asking: Why don’t we sell the desalination byproduct?
Extracting salt from saltwater is an ancient practice, and today, it is big business. The process creates fresh water for agriculture, drinking, and industry. And the leftovers are valuable.
The concentrated desalination residue — known as brine — is rich in minerals, including lithium, magnesium, copper, and zinc. Roughly 18,000 desal plants worldwide take in 23 trillion gallons of seawater each year, producing more than 37 billion gallons of brine daily, enough to fill 50,000 Olympic-size pools. That’s roughly $2.2 trillion worth of materials, according to the Brine Miners, a team of researchers at Oregon State University…