Does it solve the brine problem? Usually the seawater must be heavily treated first before desalination and the resulting brine causes ecological problems when discharged.

This system requires a subsequent RO Reverse Osmosis system because it only removes so much of the Na salts (which it makes into Na metal).

It looks like stacking this system on this system would be even more efficient; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48425376 :

> "Extreme salt-resisting multistage solar distillation with thermohaline convection" (2023) https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(23)00360-4

Which sustainable production processes take brine as an input?

I think that's the right approach.

ScholarlyArticle: "Seawater batteries for energy storage, desalination and carbon sequestration" (2026) https://www.nature.com/articles/s44359-026-00158-1

"Why This Battery Is The Swiss Army Knife of Renewable Energy - Undecided with Matt Ferrell" https://undecided.tech/why-this-battery-is-the-swiss-army-kn... :

"This 10¢ Battery Turns Seawater Into Freshwater" https://youtube.com/watch?v=j-C7A8kmJuQ