Introducing HydraOS: An Intelligent Operating System for Saltworks’ Water and Lithium Processing Plants

Sep 14, 2026

Saltworks Technologies announces HydraOS, an intelligent operating system that future-proofs water and lithium plant operations. HydraOS transforms conventional process control into intelligent operating systems (OS) that optimize plant performance, maximize uptime, and assist operators in real time.

The unified OS integrates automation, simulation, digital twins, advanced sensors, and AI-enabled virtual engineers into a single platform available only to Saltworks’ water treatment and lithium processing facilities.

Built into Saltworks’ Aurora lithium demonstration plant, HydraOS is already redefining advanced plant control, training on live data and improving its intelligence and optimization capabilities daily. It continuously optimizes plant performance, vastly improves plant-wide visibility, enables autonomous diagnosis and corrective action, and includes an ‘operator time machine’ to rewind and replay events.

Simplified diagram of HydraOS digital architecture

The HydraOS package comes with add-on capabilities:

  • HydraSim: A ‘flight simulator’ that enables operator training, control strategy validation, and virtual commissioning to de-risk start-up.
  • HydraTwin: An offline digital twin that combines operational data with advanced process models to evaluate plant performance, optimize strategies, and assess changing conditions such as feedwater composition, process modifications, or new production requirements.
  • HydraVE: An AI-enabled virtual engineer that knows all project and plant design documentation inside out, from P&IDs to electrical prints and product manuals. The ‘always-available’ Hydra Virtual Engineer supports troubleshooting, operator training, optimization, and answering questions.
  • RoboSense: An automated, real-time ion-specific sensing platform that provides rapid and automated ion concentration data, which unlocks the ability to optimize recovery in real time. More on RoboSense will be released in the coming months.

HydraOS was designed as an AI-ready operating system, providing the data architecture, context, and digital foundation required for advanced AI integration. The level of AI-assisted analysis, decision support, and autonomous control is a customer-specific decision.

Contact our expert engineers today to learn how HydraOS can help maximize plant performance, reduce operating complexity, and improve labor, recovery, capacity, and uptime outcomes.

About Saltworks

Saltworks Technologies is a leader in the development and delivery of solutions for industrial wastewater treatment and lithium refining. By working with customers to understand their unique challenges and focusing on continuous innovation, Saltworks’ solutions provide best-in-class performance and reliability. From its headquarters in Richmond, BC, Canada, Saltworks’ team designs, builds, and operates full-scale plants, and offers comprehensive onsite and offsite testing services with its fleet of mobile pilots.

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Introducing HydraOS: An Intelligent Operating System for Saltworks’ Water and Lithium Processing Plants

Introducing HydraOS: An Intelligent Operating System for Saltworks’ Water and Lithium Processing Plants Sep 14, 2026 Saltworks Technologies announces HydraOS, an intelligent operating system that future-proofs water and lithium plant operations. HydraOS transforms conventional process control into intelligent operating systems (OS) that optimize plant performance, maximize uptime, and assist operators

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