International foundation · since 2016
An independent foundation that has been turning laboratory work into functioning infrastructure since 2016: seawater desalination, the water loop of green hydrogen, resource recovery from brine, offshore energy and protection of the Caspian ecosystem.
About the foundation
The foundation was established on 27 December 2016. Our task has not changed since day one: turning laboratory breakthroughs into working infrastructure that can be built, maintained and paid back.
We work with coastal regions where a shortage of fresh water and the degradation of the sea hold back industry, agriculture and quality of life. The foundation is not a one-off charity — we fund applied research, deliver independent technical due diligence and support deployment until a facility reaches its design output.
Our name and emblem refer to the Caspian seal — a species whose fate depends directly on how people treat the sea. The pentagon in the logo stands for the five principles of our work: research, engineering, ecology, education and partnerships.
What we do
The Caspian is simultaneously a freshwater shortage, a record decline in sea level, an energy transition and a vanishing ecosystem. The foundation works across all of it, because none of these can be solved in isolation.
The foundation's core area: industrial and low-input seawater desalination technologies. We carry out independent technical due diligence, model the energy balance and the cost per cubic metre, and support facilities until they reach design output.
Three technology platforms in the portfolio — from 260 m³/day per hectare of passive mats to 3,000,000 m³/day across an industrial network.
Electrolysis needs demineralised water, and in the Caspian region there is nowhere to take it from but the sea. We design the water loop of hydrogen projects: intake, desalination, polishing to electrolyser specification, and brine management.
Electrolysis projects of up to 20 GW require in the order of 255,000 m³ of water per day — a volume fully covered by desalination, with no load on underground sources.
Brine is the principal waste stream of desalination, and today it goes straight back into the sea. Sorbent and membrane technologies recover lithium, magnesium and bromine from it, turning an environmental problem into a source of raw materials.
Direct extraction takes hours rather than the 12–24 months of evaporation ponds, and lithium recovery exceeds 90% against 40–60% for the conventional route.
Desalination and electrolysis only make sense on cheap green power. The foundation models off-grid supply schemes: offshore wind, solar on coastal salt flats, buffer storage, and operating modes at peak generation.
The technical offshore wind potential of the Azerbaijani shelf alone is 157 GW. The foundation's designs cover a desalination node's demand with 100% green generation.
The Caspian is shrinking faster than any forecast made in the 1990s. This puts water intakes, ports and protected waters out of service. We monitor, model scenarios and prepare recommendations for adapting infrastructure.
A drop of 9–35 cm per year since 2020 — the lowest level in four centuries. We prepare risk maps for water intakes and ports under 5–10 metre decline scenarios.
The Caspian seal on our emblem is not decoration. We support population monitoring, restoration of sturgeon spawning grounds and closed-loop aquaculture that takes the pressure off wild stocks.
Assessment of the impact of brine discharge on marine life is a mandatory part of due diligence on every project, not an optional extra.
Approach
We assess every technology against three hard criteria: how much water it delivers, how much energy that costs, and how many years it runs without maintenance.
We fund the development of photothermal membranes, hydrogels and carbon-nanotube composites. The key metrics are the share of the solar spectrum absorbed and the reduction in the enthalpy of evaporation.
We design units for a specific body of water: salinity, temperature, available generation, brine logistics. We stay with the facility until it hits its design figures.
Desalination must not solve one problem at the cost of another. We quantify the thermal load on the water body, brine concentration at the outfall and the impact on marine life.
Technology platforms
Passive solar distillation, industrial reverse osmosis on dedicated green generation, and waste-heat desalination. Different scales, different economics, one goal.
“Zero-input mats” — floating modules for passive solar distillation
This technology solved the central problem of solar desalination — salt crystallisation, which used to clog the pores of the material within days. The unit is a sealed floating plastic dome with a multi-layer membrane stretched across its base.
A giga-scale reverse osmosis network on dedicated green generation
The pinnacle of industrial desalination in China. The project aims to move the industry of the coastal provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong entirely onto seawater, relieving underground freshwater sources.
Each of the network's 340 plants is built on a radial-node principle. A plant is not connected to the national grid, so it places no load on that infrastructure.
The Penglai plant — two problems solved in one loop
The technology solves two problems at once: it recovers hazardous thermal pollution from nuclear and thermal power stations and turns it into cheap fresh water.
In conventional reverse osmosis, cold seawater (10–12 °C) is highly viscous. To force it through the membrane pores, pumps must develop 70–80 bar of pressure.
Technical figures are based on field-trial data and design documentation from the operators of the installations. The foundation independently verifies all figures before joining a project.
Results
We measure impact not in events held, but in cubic metres of water, kilowatt-hours and years of failure-free operation.
| Parameter | Photothermal mats | Solar Corridor | Waste heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principle | Passive solar distillation | Reverse osmosis, green generation | Reverse osmosis on pre-warmed feed |
| Output | 260 m³/day per hectare | 3,000,000 m³/day across the network | 100,000 m³/day per complex |
| External energy | Only pumping water ashore | 3.1 kWh/m³ from dedicated wind and solar | 2.65 kWh/m³ |
| Capital expenditure | Low | Very high | Medium |
| Where it applies | Islands, settlements, aquaculture, emergencies | Coastal industrial agglomerations | Next to nuclear, thermal and petrochemical plants |
History
Caspian Foundation was registered on 27 December 2016. Its first area of work was environmental monitoring of coastal waters and assessment of freshwater scarcity.
Launch of a grant line for solar distillation materials: porous hydrogels, black polymer coatings and carbon-nanotube composites.
The first floating modules undergo seasonal trials in open water. The night-time gravity self-cleaning effect of conical micropores is confirmed.
The foundation joins the due diligence of large SWRO projects: energy balance, membrane selection, and off-grid supply schemes based on offshore generation.
Work begins on desalination using pre-warmed water from industrial cooling loops — with a double effect: cheap water and removal of the thermal load on the water body.
The foundation runs three technology platforms in parallel and is open to partnership with development institutions, industrial groups and regional administrations.
Partnership
The foundation acts as the independent technical party to a project. We do not sell equipment and are not affiliated with suppliers — which lets us give an honest assessment of both the technology and the economics.
Co-financing of pilots and applied research.
Water supply for chemical, textile and petrochemical clusters.
Materials science, membrane technology, sample testing.
Water supply programmes for islands and arid coastal zones.
Contact
Tell us about the region, the energy available and the volume of water required — we will come back with a preliminary assessment of the applicable technology and its energy balance.
