Stop treating acid mine drainage as a forever liability.
Low pH, high sulfate, iron and manganese, climbing TDS — coal-mine AMD and contact water between 5,000 and 50,000 mg/L bleed budget on lime, sludge and endless discharge monitoring. Desalus funds, builds, owns and operates the treatment — you simply buy back discharge-ready water at an attractive rate per thousand gallons, with zero brine and zero sludge. Active site or legacy seep, no capital and no disposal liability.
Pyrite doesn't stop oxidizing when the coal runs out.
When sulfide minerals meet air and water, they make sulfuric acid that mobilizes iron, manganese, aluminum and sulfate. The seep keeps flowing for decades after closure — which is why AMD is the longest-lived liability on a coal property's books.
- Lime treatment never ends — you buy reagent, generate metal-hydroxide sludge, and pay to landfill it, forever, with zero product to show.
- Sulfate is the hard part. Lime knocks down metals but leaves sulfate and TDS, so a tightening discharge limit can strand a whole site.
- High and variable volume after storm events overwhelms passive wetlands and turns "treatment" into an open-ended bond.
What lime-and-sludge AMD treatment really costs
Conventional AMD treatment is a cost with no end and no product. Desalus turns the same flow into water and fertilizer.
The fix for AMD isn't more lime. It's recovery.
Desalus is a full water-treatment service built for sulfate- and iron-laden mine water — Desalus funds, builds and runs it, recovers nearly all of it, and leaves nothing to landfill.
99%+ recovery, zero brine
Recover almost every liter of AMD and eliminate the reject stream and hydroxide sludge entirely. No ponds, no liners, no hauling.
Lower water cost, zero capital
No capital outlay and no operating burden. Desalus funds, builds and runs everything — you pay only for discharge-ready water, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons that beats lime, sludge and endless monitoring.
Discharge compliance, de-risked
Tightening sulfate and TDS limits stop being an existential threat. Zero-liquid-discharge operation regulators and downstream communities welcome.
Built for 5k–50k mg/L
Engineered for the contact-water band where lime plus RO collapses on scaling, sulfate and rising TDS.
Retire the perpetual bond
Trade an open-ended closure liability for a fixed, predictable water rate — Desalus owns and operates the asset, for legacy seeps and active operations alike.
Service, not just steel
Desalus delivers treatment as a service — engineered, operated and optimized around your specific AMD chemistry and flows.
Right in the band where AMD treatment breaks
From mildly impacted seep water to concentrated underground-mine pool water, Desalus is designed for 5,000–50,000 mg/L total dissolved solids — sulfate, iron and all.
The highlighted band is the Desalus sweet spot — exactly where coal-mine water managers are stranded today.
Desalus vs. how AMD gets handled today
The same seep, three very different outcomes.
| Outcome | Desalus | Lime + sludge ponds | Lime + conventional RO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water recovery | 99%+ | Low — sludge-bound | Stalls on sulfate scaling |
| Brine / sludge stream | None | Perpetual sludge pond | Brine — must be managed |
| Sulfate & TDS removal | Full | Sulfate remains | Partial, scaling-limited |
| Capital you outlay | None — Desalus owns & operates | You fund & build | You fund & build |
| What you pay for | Clean water, per 1,000 gal | Reagent + sludge disposal, forever | Power + brine disposal |
| Closure / bond risk | Retired — ZLD | Perpetual | Rising |
| Your all-in water cost | Lowest & predictable | Highest | High |
From AMD water report to clean water in four steps.
It starts with your numbers. Send Desalus a full-panel water quality and volume report — pH, sulfate, metals, TDS and flow — and you'll get site-specific insight into your clean-water rate and the costs you'll shed.
Start with your water reportShare your full-panel report
Send AMD quality and volume data through the Desalus contact form — pH, sulfate, iron, manganese, TDS and flow. The richer the panel, the sharper the model.
Get a site-specific model
Desalus quantifies recovery, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the reagent, sludge and disposal costs you avoid for your exact seep.
Desalus builds & operates it
Desalus capitalizes, installs and runs the KNeW Process, Zix-Zak ion exchange and No-Briner systems around your site — no capex or operating burden for you.
Buy back discharge-ready water, waste-free
You purchase discharge-ready water at your agreed rate per thousand gallons. Brine and sludge never exist, and the recovered salts become fertilizer Desalus markets — which is how your water price stays low.
Raise profit. Eliminate waste. Flourish community.
The award-winning systems behind the Desalus service turn your hardest AMD into your most surprising asset.
What coal-mine water managers ask first
Does it handle low pH, iron and high sulfate?
Yes — that combination is the point. Desalus is built for sulfate- and metal-laden acid mine drainage in the 5,000–50,000 mg/L TDS range, recovering the water and the dissolved load rather than precipitating metals into sludge you have to landfill. Sulfate and TDS are removed, not just shifted.
How does the Desalus model work — what do I actually pay?
Desalus capitalizes, builds, owns, operates and maintains the facility. You don't buy equipment or run anything — you simply purchase the discharge-ready water Desalus produces, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons. Because Desalus recovers and sells the resulting farm-grade fertilizer, we can price your water below perpetual lime-and-sludge treatment while leaving zero waste. The fertilizer revenue is Desalus'; your benefit is cheaper water, no capital and no disposal liability.
What happens to the metals and sulfate I used to landfill?
They're recovered. Over 99% of the water comes out as discharge-ready clean water, and the dissolved solids are recovered as farm-grade fertilizer. There is no metal-hydroxide sludge pond and no brine — true zero-liquid-discharge.
Can this work on a legacy or closed site, not just an active mine?
Yes. AMD seeps outlive the mine, and Desalus is designed to turn a perpetual post-closure liability into a self-funding, productive asset. Send the seep chemistry and flow and we'll model it.
What do I need to get started?
A full-panel water analysis — pH, sulfate, metals, TDS — and your volumes, including storm-event variability. Submit them through the contact form on desalus.com and the Desalus team will return site-specific insights.
See exactly how much better your AMD can be.
Send Desalus a full-panel water quality and volume report and get site-specific insight into the discharge-ready water — and the savings — waiting in the drainage you already manage.
No obligation. The report drives a site-specific model of recovery, your water rate per thousand gallons, and the costs you avoid.
- Quantified water recovery for your exact sulfate, metals and TDS
- Your attractive clean-water rate per thousand gallons
- Avoided reagent, sludge, pond, disposal and capital costs
- Zero capital outlay — Desalus funds, builds & operates it all