What is the name of your organization?
Roca Water, Inc.
What is the name of your solution?
Roca Water, Inc.
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Precision resource recovery to enable simultaneous water remediation and fertilizer recovery.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Alameda, California
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Coastal waters around the world are experiencing severe ecological degradation due to nutrient pollution. Over 50% of the global population lives within 100 km of a coastline. Nutrients, such as ammonium, that are discharged to the ocean through wastewater and agricultural runoff are the primary drivers of nutrient pollution—leading to algal blooms, oxygen depletion, and a reduction in biodiversity. Over 245,000 square kilometers of ocean globally suffer from hypoxic conditions, threatening marine life, local economies, and food security. These impacts are especially devastating in communities dependent on fisheries and coastal tourism.
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. coastal waters are impaired by nutrient pollution, according to the EPA. In the San Francisco Bay Area, this issue came to the forefront in 2022 with the first major algal bloom, and California’s nitrogen management costs are estimated at $11 billion due to rising populations and outdated infrastructure.
Our solution directly addresses these drivers by recovering nitrogen from wastewater, promoting more precise nutrient management, and restoring natural ocean ecosystems. Without intervention, nutrient pollution will continue to escalate with population growth, further threatening coastal resilience, public health, and global food security.
What is your solution?
Roca has developed a precision electrochemical system that recovers ammonium from wastewater streams before it is discharged to coastal ecosystems. Our technology uses a battery-inspired approach to selectively capture ammonium ions. When a low electrical current is applied, the ammonium ions are intercalated into the electrode—similar to how a battery stores a charge. After separation from the feed water, the ammonium is released into a recovery solution where it can be converted into fertilizer or ammonia, which is a potential renewable fuel.
Our technology addresses two major climate challenges: (1) reducing nitrogen pollution that leads to eutrophication and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, and (2) decarbonizing fertilizer production by replacing energy-intensive Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis with ammonia produced from wastewater. Our system has been designed to be extremely simple and durable, enabling long-term operation in complex water sources. If scaled, our technology could save millions of gallons of water, and reduce reliance on synthetic ammonia production, with a potential GHG impact of ~28 million metric tons of carbon dioxide / year in the US alone. Our system can be deployed at municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial sites, and agricultural facilities—anywhere that ammonium-rich wastewater would otherwise contribute to marine degradation.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution directly serves coastal communities, wastewater utilities, and agricultural producers in areas suffering from nitrogen-driven water degradation. Globally, hundreds of millions of people depend on healthy oceans for food, income, and climate resilience. Many of these communities are also on the front lines of environmental injustice, experiencing disproportionate exposure to water pollution.
Roca’s system provides these communities with a proactive tool to reduce ammonia pollution before it enters waterways. By enabling upstream recovery, we help municipal wastewater utilities comply with strict nitrogen discharge limits more affordably and efficiently. Industrial facilities benefit from reduced treatment costs and a pathway to valorize their nitrogen-rich waste.
Coastal populations benefit the most: improved water quality leads to healthier ecosystems, revitalized fisheries, and increased resilience to climate change. In historically underserved areas—such as urban neighborhoods near wastewater plants and low-income coastal regions—our solution can help address long-standing environmental inequities.
Agricultural communities also benefit through access to a new source of low-carbon, recycled fertilizer. This not only supports circular economy goals but also reduces dependence on fossil-fuel-based fertilizers that contribute to climate change and ecological harm.
