Qassim University has received a patent document from the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) for the innovation of "a system and method for desalination using a halophyte plant", through a closed biological system that can convert highly saline water into distilled fresh water so that the system works naturally and can produce fresh water in commercial quantities.

The research team, led by Dr. Abdulaziz bin Bani Al-Harbi, with the participation of Dr. Mokdad Rabhi and Dr. Ahmed Al-Zuhairi, was able to invent this system that works for a long time without the need for any intervention, which helps solve the dilemma of desalination of water sustainably and using solar energy without the need for other energies, as this innovation opens a new window in scientific research for a method of desalination of highly saline water with an environmentally friendly and economically inexpensive mechanism.

This innovation comes within the "Patent Registration Project for University Affiliates", one of the initiatives of the UQU Vice Presidency for Postgraduate Studies and Scientific Research represented by the Innovation and Intellectual Property Center. This project aims to raise the local and international ranking of the university in the number of patents registered, as well as contribute to motivating university affiliates to transform their inventions and research ideas into protected products with economic return.  

This new desalination system has been designed to be completely transparent, allowing sunlight to enter a carefully engineered environment with highly saline-loving plants floating directly on the water, taking into account the plant's gas exchange so that a miniature ecological balance occurs over a long period of time, during which the resulting salt-free water is collected naturally.