## 3 Results and Discussion
### ASE&C Technology Competitive Advantages  
1. The ASE&C system is a cost-effective water quality treatment which does not need sample pre-treatment (it does not use chemical reagents). The resultant fluid from the treated seawater achieves 100% removal of most of the elements (Tables 1 and 5). 2. It is an energetically versatile low-cost technology (0-20 kWh/ m\({}^{3}\)) when coupled to solar thermal energy, photovoltaic, residual heat, biomass, etc., considering that it requires electricity or heat for the operation. 3. The final two potential commercial byproducts (clean freshwater and commercial crystallized salts) could offset operational costs as a promising secondary source. It has been demonstrated that 100% distilled water can be produced from contaminated effluents. Volumes of 100 m\({}^{3}\) per day were treated and tested under controlled conditions for several weeks, demonstrating the production of 100 m\({}^{3}\)/d distilled water (pilot plant). This is also scalable up to the treatment of 600 m\({}^{3}\)/d to recover the same amount of water (a 40-foot plant); however, it is scalable to higher volumes, as replicates of this approach will not have limits in their design. Regarding the \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline  & **Sewater** & **Brine A** & **Brine B** & **Brine C** \\ \hline Na & 2692–8117 & 24.11–72.7 & 13.8–41.7 & 4.33–13.0 \\ Ca & 66–291 & 0.79–3.46 & 0.5–2.0 & 0.43–1.9 \\ Mg & 148 & 15.03 & 8.7 & 5.7 \\ Ga & & 1104–11,340 & 1000–10,275 & \\ Sr & & 0.52–2.94 & 0.29–1.64 & 0.14–0.82 \\ Li & 703–755 & 1.03–1.11 & 0.61–0.66 & \\ B & 22–28 & 0.013–0.02 & 7–9 & \\ Rb & & 4.91–6.31 & 2642–3396 & \\ \hline Total (thousands of EUR) & 3631–9338 & 1150–11,441 & 1026–10,333 & 10.62–21.45 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Potential economic range value (minimum-maximum in thousands of EUR) of the elements recovered from the waste of brines calculated for an annual depruation capacity of 1000 m\({}^{3}\)/d and considering analytical data and market prices from [21]. production of dry conglomerates, it obtains 95-99% of the total solutes included in the original input fluid. 4. The CO2 footprint of the ASEC&C technology is estimated at 0.2 tons (for production of 600 m\({}^{3}\)/d and 5 kWh/m\({}^{3}\)), so these emissions would be approximately null if using photovoltaic and thermo-solar panels as a source of energy. Thus, considering a consumption of 5 kWh of electric energy, it would emit 0.5 kg/CO2 eq m\({}^{3}\). 5. This technology can be adapted to other fluid characteristics for a properly efficient process, and indeed has already been tested on some of them [16]. ASE&C is a portable module occupying 40 feet of container space and may be placed anywhere, but could also be designed as a full plant for higher volumes of fluid treatments. 6. It complies with the legislation of the EU Water Framework Directive [31; 32; 33] and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve good ecological status of water bodies. The ASE&C effluent produces distilled water that can be reused for different purposes, such as industrial processes and human consumption; it might be injected in wells to fill and purify aquifers; after remineralization, it is suitable for drinking; it is suitable for irrigation after mixture with aquifer water; and it could also be dumped in superficial water, achieving good ecological status. One study [13] recognized several impact mitigation strategies, associated with (i) source water intake, (ii) brine discharge (water recovery, energy recovery, extraction of precious materials, beneficial use of brine), (iii) energy use, (iv) site selection, and (v) impact on the environment. The ASE&C can completely solve three of them and the others to a partial extent. Other technologies for freshwater recovery of mineral extraction from brines are less efficient, imply high energy consumption, and require the addition of products and chemicals (Table 5).