Saltworks Technologies Inc.

Market position

Saltworks operates in industrial water treatment, a market the company characterized in 2014 as a roughly $82-billion global market that was larger and less commoditized than its original seawater drinking-water focus. It is positioned as a British Columbia clean-technology manufacturer and innovator, cited by Innovate BC as a BC solutions provider deploying next-generation mining and critical minerals processing technology, and by PacifiCan as a firm commercializing industrial desalination technology.

Saltworks combines membrane, chemical and thermal unit processes into automated, digitized modular plants delivered end-to-end, allowing treatment of highly impaired waters where conventional membrane systems are unsuitable. Stated technical differentiators include electrodialysis membranes that do not swell on hydrocarbon exposure, 98% monovalent ion selectivity, chemical pretreatment that avoids clarifiers, coagulants and flocculants, reverse osmosis recovery limited only by osmotic potential up to 130,000 mg/L TDS, evaporators requiring no pretreatment and having no single point of failure, and a patented air emissions control system. For lithium, its Generation-II end-to-end refining technology is described as delivering lower costs, higher purity and higher recovery than conventional technologies.

Technology

The technology portfolio spans membrane, chemical and thermal desalination: electrodialysis reversal (FlexEDR Selective and Organix) with ion-selective membranes for selective ion removal and desalination of high-organic or hydrocarbon-bearing waters; BrineRefine chemical treatment that converts scaling chemistry to non-scaling and removes scalants without clarifiers, coagulants or flocculants; XtremeRO ultra-high-recovery reverse osmosis reaching brine TDS up to 130,000 mg/L; and SaltMaker MultiEffect and AirBreather evaporator/crystallizers offering single-pass treatment without pretreatment, corrosion and scaling resistance, no single point of failure, automated intelligent operation and cleaning, and (for AirBreather) a patented air emissions control system with atmospheric fresh water vapour discharge. Units are packaged as mobile trailers or ISO container blocks and integrated with automated intelligent control systems into digitized modular plants. For lithium, a concentrate-refine-convert (CRC) process flow takes brine to battery-grade chemicals; a Generation-II direct lithium extraction and refining system is described as offering lower cost, higher purity and higher recovery than conventional technologies.

Go-to-market

The company markets technical spec sheets and offers a free engineering analysis of a prospective customer's water treatment project by its solutions engineers, then advances customers through bench and pilot testing to full-scale delivery. It also partners directly with resource developers — for example participating as the BC-based solutions provider on EMP Metals' Project Aurora — and has been supported by government commercialization and testbed programs.

Industrial clients in battery manufacturing, mining and lithium brine development, semiconductors, automotive, oil and gas, food and beverage, agriculture, and environmental sectors that need water reuse, brine volume reduction, zero or minimal liquid discharge, or brine-to-battery-grade lithium refining.

Geography

Headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, with innovation and production facilities there; Preqin lists the company as Vancouver-based. Clients are served across North America, and Preqin describes operations in North America, Europe and Asia with plans to target new European and Asian markets. Delivered installations referenced include a SaltMaker unit at a zinc refinery in Mexico and units in Australia and the United States, plus pilot units supplied to NASA's Ames Research Center; the Project Aurora lithium refining system is being built in BC for dispatch to a lithium well in Saskatchewan.

History

After launching in 2008 around seawater desalination for drinking water, the company shifted its focus to industrial water treatment. Between roughly 2012 and 2014 it delivered several pilot units to NASA's Ames Research Center for possible International Space Station application, launched the SaltMaker evaporator/crystallizer for highly impaired saline wastewater, installed a fully commercial SaltMaker unit at a zinc refinery in Mexico (its largest project at the time) along with units in Australia and the US, and developed ElectroChem, a membrane technology for brine management, mine run-off treatment and metals recovery. By March 2014 it had 45 employees and was planning a move to larger premises to scale production. Preqin records four funding deals, the most recent a USD 2.5 million grant from Sustainable Development Technology Canada in March 2015. PacifiCan Business Scale-up and Productivity funding of $2.5 million supported commercialization of industrial desalination technology, with results including multiple new product lines and 56 jobs created. The company later added lithium refining, and in 2026 announced installation of Generation-II DLE technology at Project Aurora and additional semiconductor water reuse work.