the concentrated salt stream retains about fifty five percent of the total energy of the sea water stream that was originally fed to the membranes to reduce the energy that is required to operate the reverse osmosis plan the pressurized concentrated stream is piped into an energy recovery device here up to ninety percent of the energy of the concentrated salt stream is transferred to an equal volume of the incoming seawater in an isobaric energy recovery device the energy recovery device significantly reduces the plants operating costs by recovering the concentrated salt stream energy and using it to pressurize sixty percent of the sea water that is fed to the membranes the concentrated salt stream will have about a sixty percent higher salinity than the incoming seawater the concentrated salt stream is sent back to the ocean through a brine disposal well or a device known as a brine outfall the brine outfall is situated in an area of significant ocean flow so that the salt levels are quickly return to equilibrium with the ocean the location for the outfall should contain no sensitive marine ecosystems in a properly designed Brian outfall no noticeable increase in salinity can be detected at a distance of a few meters from the discharge