Overview
Reverse osmosis rejects roughly 50 % of the seawater it takes in as concentrated brine at about 8 % salt, and that brine goes back into the sea. ARBOK-Brine is the retrofit that ends the discharge: it takes the reject stream from an existing RO plant and desalinates it completely under deep vacuum at the temperature of the surroundings.
Two consequences follow directly. The plant's drinking-water output doubles, because the half that was thrown away becomes product. And the toxic discharge stops entirely, because there is no liquid tail — the salt leaves as a dry solid with commercial value.
The sources state that no other proven and effective technology for treating such brines exists. Concentration is not a limit: brine of any strength up to 35.5 %, the level of the Dead Sea, is processed at the same energy consumption. Energy for the desalination process drops by a factor of 3 to 15 against reverse osmosis, at 0.7 kWh per tonne net.
Applications
Retrofit of existing RO plants. The primary case named in the source: ARBOK-Brine is added to a working reverse-osmosis installation and consumes its reject stream.
Hypersaline waters. Brines up to 35.5 % salt, Dead Sea class, at unchanged energy input.
Industrial brine streams. Any concentrated salt stream requiring elimination rather than dilution or deep-well injection.
Coastal municipalities under discharge restriction. Where brine outfall permits are the constraint on expanding desalination capacity.
Operating Principle
The brine is held under deep vacuum, where water passes to the vapour phase at the temperature of the incoming stream and of the surroundings — no heat is supplied and no temperature setpoint exists. The vapour condenses as drinking water of consumer quality that needs no post-treatment: no UV disinfection, no fine filtration, no cooling, no remineralization. The dissolved salt remains and leaves the unit dry.
Because separation is by phase transition and not by pressure against a membrane, feed concentration does not raise the energy demand. This is the structural difference from reverse osmosis, whose energy requirement climbs with osmotic pressure and which therefore cannot process its own reject stream.
Water quality is verified by an inline chemical laboratory that runs in the flow and transmits results in real time over the internet.
Key Parameters
| Parameter | Value |
|—|—|
| Feed | RO reject brine, ~8 % salt, and any brine up to 35.5 % |
| Operating pressure | deep vacuum |
| Process temperature | ambient — equal to the feed and the surroundings, no heat supplied, no setpoint |
| Specific energy | 0.7 kWh/t net; 3–15× less than reverse osmosis |
| Energy share of cost | 95–98 % of total desalination cost structure |
| Throughput per unit | 100–200 t/day of brine (25,000–50,000 gallons/day) |
| Form factor | 20-foot container, outdoor installation |
| Moving parts | none — no rotating machines or mechanisms |
| Consumables | none — no membranes, filters, cathodes, coagulants, inhibitors |
| Liquid discharge | none |
| Products | drinking water requiring no further treatment, plus dry commercial salt |
| Corrosion | process does not corrode metals |
| Quality control | inline chemical laboratory, real-time reporting over the internet |
| Scaling | by adding units |
| Operator skill | no high qualification required |
Architecture and Components
Twenty-foot container housing the deep-vacuum separation stage, vapour condensation and product-water collection, dry-salt discharge, and the inline chemical laboratory with internet reporting. No rotating machinery. Sited outdoors alongside the existing RO plant. Total capacity is set by the number of containers rather than by the size of any single machine.
Advantages
Against discharging the brine. The reject stream stops entering the sea. There is no liquid tail at all.
Against the plant's own economics. Drinking-water output from the same intake doubles, because the rejected half becomes product. Dry salt is an additional revenue line, and the source states this is what makes the desalination project commercially viable rather than merely cleaner.
Against reverse osmosis on energy. 3 to 15 times less energy, and unchanged energy demand as concentration rises, where RO's demand rises with osmotic pressure.
Operationally. No consumables to buy or replace, no moving parts to service, no corrosion, no specialist operators, outdoor siting, and product water that goes straight to the network or to bottling.
Competitively. The source states there are no proven and effective technologies in the world for cleaning such brines other than ARBOK-Brine.
Integrations
ARBOK-Purification · Vacuum Osmosis · ARBOK-CRYSTALLIZER · ARBOK LIGHT-SALT · ARBOK-BEVERIX
ARBOK-Brine is the brine-side application of the same vacuum platform that appears as ARBOK-Purification on general water and as ARBOK-DESALINATION on raw seawater. It is designed to sit on top of third-party reverse-osmosis plants rather than to replace them.
Deployment & Operation
Installed alongside an existing reverse-osmosis plant and connected to its reject line. Container is placed outdoors on a prepared surface; no building is required. Operation is continuous, with quality monitored automatically in the flow. Capacity is matched to the host plant by the number of containers.
Commissioning steps, service intervals and utility requirements: [требует уточнения из базы].
TRL
Workable Prototype — as stated in LIST OF INNOVATIONS-100.docx, position 1. No numeric TRL rating is recorded in the base.
Market Potential
Every reverse-osmosis desalination plant in operation is a candidate site, since all of them produce the reject stream this technology consumes, and discharge permits are an increasing constraint on coastal capacity. The value proposition is unusual in that it does not require the operator to replace existing equipment: the retrofit doubles output from an asset already built and paid for.
Quantified market sizing, installed RO capacity by region and addressable brine volume: [требует уточнения из базы].
Typical Project Economics
Energy accounts for 95–98 % of the cost structure at 0.7 kWh/t, so the operating cost is close to the local electricity price multiplied by throughput. Revenue comes from two lines: the doubled volume of drinking water, and dry salt sold as a commercial product.
Risk Factors
Status is Workable Prototype, not industrial deployment, so scale-up from the prototype remains to be demonstrated. Throughput of 100–200 t/day per container means a large RO plant needs many units, and the site area and manifolding for that have not been recorded. The claim that no competing brine technology exists is a market assertion from the source rather than a surveyed finding. Salt revenue depends on local offtake for the specific composition recovered, which varies by feed. Drinking-water certification for product water delivered without post-treatment will be required in each jurisdiction.
Related Technologies
ARBOK-Purification · Vacuum Osmosis · ARBOK-CRYSTALLIZER · ARBOK LIGHT-SALT · ARBOK-BEVERIX · ARBOK-Stellar