As more and more parts of the world face severe drought, new technologies are gradually cleaning and repeating existing water. Investors see the potential for huge profits.

Water treatment is expensive. It uses a lot of energy and generates its own waste to be disposed of at a high price. Capture6, a startup in Berkeley, California, said it is developing a solution that brings additional benefits to the environment.

Capture 6 technology reuses industrial and water treatment waste, generates clean water and captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

“The combination of water treatment, brine management and carbon capture is part of what makes us unique,” ​​said Capture6 Capture6 CEO Ethan Cohen-Cole, who co-founded the company in 2021.

The process is complicated. It starts with waste in any form of water treatment. Once solids are removed, the waste is called brine, which is the remaining water plus concentrated salt - sodium chloride. Treatment facilities usually have to pay to get rid of it.

But Capture6 takes the brine, peels off the fresh water, and separates the salt into sodium and chlorine. It then turns sodium into lye.

"The lye has a really neat property, and if you expose it to the air, it will combine with CO2 and peel it from the air, which is the punch line of the process," Cohen-Cole said. "We have dealt with the waste salt, we have returned the fresh water to our companions, and we have captured carbon dioxide from the air."

This is a particularly attractive proposition in areas where clean water is most needed. Capture6 works in Western Australia, South Korea and California, in the Palmdale Water district north of Los Angeles. The region is still testing the technology, but has already predicted a large amount of costs in its salt water management.

"This will save us 10% of our capital costs and 20% to 40% of our operating costs," said Scott Rogers, assistant general manager of Palmdale Water District. "We recovered water that would normally be wasted from 94% to 98% of our water."

It's early, but when more facilities start using the technology, it will create a circular economy that can benefit the environment, Rogers said.

Capture6 has raised $27.5 million from Tetrad Corporation, Hyundai, Energy Capital Venture Capital, Elemental Impact and Triple Impact Capital.

Cohen-Cole said the company's entire process could run on renewable energy, so all the carbon dioxide it captures will be negatively net, improving the environment. This allows companies to generate increased revenue by selling carbon credits.

This is just one technology in the field of increasing carbon capture, removal and storage. Others include direct air capture, burying carbon underground or injecting it into the ocean.

The Trump administration recently canceled $3.7 billion worth of new technology incentives, including carbon capture, to combat climate change. Capture6 has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and national-level sources, including California, according to the company. None of these have been cancelled so far.

- CNBC producer Lisa Rizzolo contributed to the work.