KIRA is reimagining desalination for a renewable-powered future. Unlike conventional reverse osmosis, the company’s adaptive electrodialysis system operates efficiently with variable solar energy. It treats diverse water sources with flexible outputs, reduces CO₂ emissions, and enables low-cost, decentralized treatment—expanding access to clean water and decarbonizing industries from oil and gas to agriculture.
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Jonathan Bessette
Jonathan Bessette is the founder and CEO of KIRA, a company working at the nexus of energy and water management. Bessette completed a B.S. at the SUNY University at Buffalo and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at MIT. Before starting KIRA, he worked on projects ranging from ice-penetrating radar to IoT sensors for monitoring rural water fetching. Bessette is passionate about bringing desalination and water treatment to previously unreached environments.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Global desalination demand is expected to increase by 30 percent, making up 12 percent of water demand, by 2050. This demand encompasses not only seawater desalination for drinking, but also the treatment of industrial process waters—from agriculture to oil and gas fields. Desalination treatment processes account for hundreds of millions of tons of CO₂ emissions per year. Decarbonization of these assets is challenged by the coupling of continuously regulated processes with variable power sources. Desalination commonly operates with a continuous, stable power source, whereas renewable energy is often highly variable.
Technology Vision
Conventional desalination technologies like reverse osmosis require constant power and tight operating constraints to avoid membrane damage and maintain performance. These methods have limited tolerance for variable feed salinity, fixed output targets, and need large energy storage to work with renewables. KIRA’s technology takes a different approach. By combining electrodialysis with novel control strategies and a custom hydraulic and power electronics architecture, KIRA enables fast, adaptive operations across a wide range of conditions. KIRA’s systems can dynamically respond to intermittent power sources like solar, adjust to feedwater and output variability, and actively optimize for water efficiency without sacrificing reliability or performance.
Potential for Impact
Currently, only about one percent of desalination capacity around the world operates with renewables. Coupling desalination systems with variable renewable energy sources has the potential to decarbonize over 200 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent per year, balance the increasingly variable power grid, and bring independent, low-operating-expense systems to previously unreached, decentralized environments. Applications range from industrial sites struggling with high-salinity wastewater to remote and water-stressed communities in need of safe drinking water.
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KIRA