## 3 Results and Discussion
### ASE&C Technology Coupled with RO  
The ASE&C system can be coupled to the RO process to improve the efficiency of desalination. Applying the ASE&C depuration to brine (Figure 3) can improve the RO efficiency up to 100% freshwater recovery, so brine discharge into the ocean would be zero (ZLD), and a byproduct composed of crystallized commercial salts would be obtained (Figure 3a). Since brine from groundwater and inland reservoirs have different compositions, the pre-treatment and treatment are different, but the final products would be the same--complete freshwater recovery and dried crystallized salts with different compositions. The compositional chemistry of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and brackish groundwater was studied in depth by [21]. This has an essential transcendence in the technoeconomic assessment of the efficiency process with the ASE&C system (material resistance and life cycle), the potential recovery process, and the revenue generated from the byproducts. Some preliminary tests were adapted and run with different types of brine with different compositional and physicochemical characteristics (seawater and aquifer desalination) (Table 3). Three types of brine with different ranges of electrical conductivity were successfully separated into distilled water and crystallized solids (humidity \(<\) 1%). Brine A had an EC of 122 mS/cm and 78 g/L of TDS; it was oversaturated brine (hypersaline). Brine B was average seawater brine from desalinization (70 mS/cm and 44 g/L TDS). A third brine (Brine C), originally from brackish groundwater, had 28 mS/cm and 18 g/L TDS. Therefore, the ASE&C technology was adapted for the necessities of different types of fluids. The resulting products had similar volumes to the input, with chemical composition similar to distilled water (EC \(<\) 90 mS/cm, TDS \(<\) 60 mg/L) and removal of sulfates, chlorides and most of the dissolved elements (Table 3). The most interesting feature of the technology is the complete recovery of freshwater that can be used for other purposes with very low energy cost, but also the useful chemical compounds contained in the second byproduct as crystallized salts (with different compositions depending on the original fluid), with potential commercial value in the raw material market. Figure 3: ASE&C coupled to the reserve osmosis cycle process for (**a**) the seawater desalination process and (**b**) groundwater brine treatment. Recovering metals, metalloids and rare earth elements as a byproduct of deparation activities is challenging, but some important concentrations are found in brines, such as lithium, rubidium, and potassium. Thus, extraction from brines and other waste streams is becoming economically viable, as previously reported in [16] with mining lixiviates deparated with the ASE&C technology. Desalination processes require physical and chemical pre-treatment (reduction of algae and corrosive material, etc.) [22] (Figure 1c), but the cleaning processes of membranes increase the chemical components in the disposal brine. However, lately, the challenge in water desalination has involved two byproducts: freshwater and solid salts [23]. Therefore, in the race to obtain better water quality, brine may be an excellent potential source. Brine mining is commonly used to extract numerous materials from the same deposit (e.g., lithium carbonate, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride), regardless of brine origin. New technologies for the separation and recovery of sources from seawater and brine are appearing [23]. Sodium chloride from salt extraction is the most ancient resource exploited from seawater, but some others, such as Au, Mg and Br, have also been extracted throughout history [24]. The new trends in mineral market prices and critical raw materials highlight the interest in the search for new sources such as brines [21; 25]. Na, Ca and Mg are elements that can be found in greater concentrations in oceans and brackish groundwater [21].