Wave-powered desalination and intelligent monitoring for sustainable water management

Project leaders

The project is led by Oneka Technologies, a Canadian company, in collaboration with Ocean Sonics, Innovobot Labs and Lengkeek Vessel Engineering, with the support of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster.

Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is a national, industry-led innovation cluster that drives the development and commercialization of technological solutions linked to the blue economy. It acts as a catalyst for collaborative projects between companies, technology centres and other stakeholders to address global ocean-related challenges such as the energy transition, sustainability and food security.

Project description

This case focuses on the development of desalination solutions powered by wave energy (wave-generated energy), combined with advanced monitoring systems based on artificial intelligence.

The approach addresses a structural challenge: although desalination is a key technology to tackle freshwater scarcity, it has traditionally been highly energy-intensive and associated with significant environmental impacts. In this context, the use of wave energy offers a low-carbon alternative for drinking water production.

The project incorporates intelligent monitoring capabilities that integrate data from different marine assets and sensors to analyse system performance in real time. Through technologies such as artificial intelligence, underwater acoustics and IoT, it aims to improve operational efficiency, reduce incidents in offshore environments and better understand the interaction between these infrastructures and the marine environment.

The initiative includes the development and validation of pre-commercial scale systems in real environments, with the objective of advancing towards more sustainable water production models adapted to coastal or remote contexts.

In parallel, the project is complemented by an approach aimed at facilitating the adoption of these types of solutions, through the generation of applied knowledge, financing models and tools that help reduce market barriers for emerging blue economy technologies.

Project objectives

The objective is to explore how the combination of seawater desalination powered by wave energy and data-driven monitoring systems can contribute to improving the efficiency, sustainability and feasibility of these solutions.

The project also seeks to advance the understanding of the environmental impact of these technologies, optimise their operation in offshore environments and support their future adoption as an alternative for freshwater production in water-scarce contexts.

Publication date

March 31, 2026

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