If they can make this work for desalination—and do it for a price such that desalinated seawater costs $300@acre and the waste brine gets converted to its constituent elements which are then sold for a profit....-—the world changes almost beyond recognition.
Why? Because cheap desalinated seawater will enable all the worlds deserts to be turned green. the habitable size of earth will double.
With carbon — all plants’ necessary food — being reduced at consistent levels, the new trees, shrubs and grasses wouldn’t last long.