Oceanwell's pods mine for fresh water in the deep sea. Raises $11M USD

OceanWell secures $11M in series A to build deep-sea water farms as a new approach to desalination, with less energy used, no waste

Desalinating water seems like the golden solution to a dry world. Israel does it. Saudi Arabia does it. Island communities are doing it. But desalination should be a last resort because it’s energy intensive and it has environmental coastal effects. The salty brine is devastating to animals and plants on the shore. Could a novel solution from the US mine water from deep in the sea, using the ocean pressure as the means to drive osmosis through desalination membrane cells?

OceanWell water farm visualization

OceanWell, a water technology company based in Los Angeles, announced $11 million in Series A funding this week to scale its modular deep-sea water farms and launch California’s water farm pilot with Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD).

Related: harvesting energy from the waves

OceanWell is developing modular deep-sea water farms made up of pods that harness natural hydrostatic pressure at depths of 400 meters for reverse osmosis desalination. Each pod can produce up to one million gallons of fresh water daily, and the modular design allows for scalable projects based on demand.

Each pod requires 1.5MW to operate to pump water from the pod to the shore. And the salt water released from the process is not considered detrimental to the ocean floor.

This technology ensures ultra-clean water by filtering out salts, bacteria, viruses, pesticides, and PFAS, while its components are engineered for durability in harsh deep-sea environments. Unlike traditional desalination methods that are energy-intensive and threaten marine life, OceanWell’s technology reduces energy consumption by up to 40 percent, while protecting marine life and eliminating toxic brine disposal.

“Our goal is to provide utility-scale, reliable and sustainable freshwater solutions that can supply clean drinking water to communities across the globe,” said Robert Bergstrom, Founder and CEO of OceanWell. “We’re grateful to our investors whose collective expertise across water technology, manufacturing and infrastructure project development will be invaluable to our company, and particularly as we look to scale up operations in the coming months.”

Kubota Corporation, a century-old leader in water infrastructure manufacturing, the family office of Jon Hemingway of Carrix Ports, and Charles McGarraugh, former head of metals trading at Goldman Sachs, participated in the round.

There is a rising mismatch between clean water supply and demand – with experts projecting that 5 billion people could be without clean drinking water by 2050. The problem is driven by rising demand for water in key economic sectors like agriculture, industry and manufacturing and compounded by the effects of climate change such as drought and flooding.

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Taxonomy

• Desalination
• Sea Water Desalinisation
• Sustainable Desalination
• Desalination Pre-treatment
• Desalination