Reach out if you are curious about what the Cryo-Separation™, our water tech innovation offers, and with it the potential to be a game changer for drinkable water access and protection of our resource.
SEAWARDS’ INNOVATION
CRYO-SEPARATION™
Agile tech, energy savvy and pollution free
PATENTED TECHNOLOGY FOR SEAWATER DESALINATION
Temperature drop with progressive seawater crystallization. An innovative cryo-separation technology that combines a more efficient and low-pollution desalination process, delivering:
- High water quality
- Low production costs
- Agile infrastructure and low footprint
- No polluted discharges
LESS ENERGY
Lower production costs. Reduced carbon emissions. Reduced exposure to energy cost fluctuations.
POLLUTION FREE
Discharge of water slightly saltier than water intake (never more than 10%) with no chemical additives.
Seawards’ novel seawater desalination technology
Seawards focuses its expertise on disruptive innovation and industrial efficiency.
Seawards develops an industrial innovation able to deploy a disruptive process for seawater desalination, offering from intake to outfall,
- High quality of drinkable water
- Low production costs
- No polluted discharges
- Agile and low footprint infrastructure
Cryo-separation™
The technical foundation is cryo-separation™, a patented seawater desalination process that applies controlled freezing, crystallisation and phase separation to seawater at industrial scale.
Cryo-Separation ™ relies on the ion migration phenomena at the ice–water interface:
- during seawater freezing, water molecules organise into a crystalline lattice to form pure ice.
- dissolved ions are rejected because they disrupt lattice formation.
- a very precise control of thermodynamic and kinetic parameters is required
The cryo-separation™ system is implemented through a modular industrial architecture:
1
Refrigeration and thermal-exchange unit
2
Dedicated crystalliser for controlled ice formation
3
Crystallisation and flotation module
4
Proprietary separation unit
Water intake
Glacification and separation
Fresh water recovery
AN EFFICIENT SOLUTION
The 3 stages of water treatment by Cryo-Separation™ (pumping, freezing, separation) consume less energy than reverse osmosis (pumping, push, recovery, treatment).
- Optimization of the energic toll
- Competitive CAPEX and OPEX
AN AGILE OPTION
The agility of our methods allows for a quick development of production, answering to various level of needs, and adaptable with complex situations.
- Prefabricated, modular infrastructures to meet specific needs, accelerate installation and operations, and reduce overall costs.
- Industrial development with production capacities in line with worldwide deployment.
- Reduced land footprint, limiting local nuisance (construction and operation).
KNOWLEDGE DRIVES INNOVATION, INNOVATION DRIVES PRODUCTIVITY, PRODUCTIVITY DRIVES ECONOMIC GROWTH.
- William Brody
A CLEAN VISION
The 22 000 seawater desalination plants currently in operation worldwide cover less than 17% of global fresh water needs, while discharging 54 billion cubic meters of pollutants that severely endanger marine ecosystems (flora and fauna).
Seawards innovates to increase freshwater and potable water resources without discharging any pollutants.
- Our technology offers a clean, economical, efficient desalination method.
- A stable, robust treatment solution that is less impacted by incoming water quality than reverse osmosis, and requires less maintenance.
- Agile infrastructures enabling solutions adapted to each environment.
There’s a way to do it better. Find it.
- Thomas Edison
Whom is the SEAWARDS Cryo-Separation for ?
AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE
By 2030, according to UNESCO, global demand for fresh water is expected to exceed supply by 40%. We will have to change some habits, but we must also increase resources.
Desalination industry is the best way to increase the resource with efficiency.
The current 22.000 plants in activity worldwide relying overwhelmingly on the Reverse Osmosis method (SWRO) are covering less than 17% of global fresh water needs while rejecting 54 billion m3 of highly polluted brine, a concentrate of salt and chemicals that is extremely harmful to the marine environment and is threatening the integrity of marine life, Flora and Fauna.
Given these figures, it is easy to appreciate that continuing down this path by expanding the deployment of these plants would represent a considerable threat to the ocean.
The seawater desalination method using crystallization (Cryo-separation) is currently the only alternative to existing methods that can be widely deployed while protecting the ocean (marine flora and fauna) because does not release any pollutants into the ocean, nor into the environment. This method will enable to increase production capacity without threatening the integrity of the ocean addressing a Total Addressable Market estimated at $30b.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF CRYOSEPARATION
A recent report based on data collected worldwide by region and capacity shows that the key drivers for building a competitive alternative to SWRO are :
- Brine recovery—reducing the impact of brine treatment and discharge
- Energy mix to hedge against market price variations
- Modular standardization for greater agility and to target the small- and medium-sized segment, which is currently the least efficient and most underserved
- Financial engineering to reduce the cost of capital.
Cryo-separation is currently the only industrial alternative capable of addressing all of these key drivers
It appears clearly in the figures of the Benchmark,
Cryo-separation will be competitive on the Small and Middle size segment from Day 1. This segment of the market is currently the worst served, but above all, it is the most promising for the future.
Agility of the system will enable to work on standardization of equipments. If we are more competitive on small and medium size, thanks to the agility and modularity of the system, with few middle plant we will be able to build a competitive and efficient large plant.
Therefore we can say that we are planning to be competitive towards SWRO.
Not to mention the absence of polluting effluents, the savings on the purchase and maintenance costs of membranes, the savings on extensive post-treatment required to make water potable in SWRO and the elimination of the need for chemicals, which alone are already a sufficient and significant reason to choose cryo-separation over SWRO.
Cryo-separation is an agile method that is effective even in low-capacity units. It will enable the reduction of the industrial footprint and the deployment of more units as close as possible to needs, thereby making it easier to protect these units by spreading the risk of destruction and improving the ability to respond in the event of a crisis.
Cryo-separation will build, starting now, the most competitive offer towards the small- and medium-capacity segment, which is currently the less efficient and most underserved, addressing the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian-Persian Gulf, a Specific Addressable Market (SOM) estimated at $3.2 billion in 2025, with a projected $8.1 billion in 2034, representing a CAGR of approximately 10.5%.
Cryo-separation will always be more competitive on low and middle capacity and more attractive because respectful of marine ecosystems, and will be always in a stronger situation, thanks to its agility, for adding modular plant to reach the same capacity with better efficiency.
INDUSTRIES
A solution that provides environmentally-friendly access to fresh water, in response to the constraints and undertakings of future restrictions.
An alternative resource to warant access to fresh water for seaside industries in times of shortage and crisis management, freeing them from dependence on a network already stressed by agricultural and domestic demands (or needs).
COASTAL TOURISM
A palliative solution to the growing need for emergency solutions in the face of water constraints and respect for the environment, in order to perpetuate the seaside tourist economy.
MARINE TERRITORIES
An innovation based on adaptable, sustainable and modular development, to meet the vital and sovereign needs of remote areas weakened by water shortages.
