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Desalination without the downsides.
One of the best parts about water is that everyone is familiar with it. Most of us are also familiar with the general downsides of the process of desalination; it’s (fossil) energy-intensive, chemicals are added which end up in the saltwater return and it’s complex to operate and maintain, making it all very expensive.
In this update, we would like to inform you of the alternative way to ensure clean water using only the sea and sun. Making water affordable in a sustainable way.
1) Energy recovery as key to improved efficiency.
Small-scale desalination solutions ranging from 4-150 m³/day are inefficient, environmentally unfriendly and complex. The first step to overcome this is by improving its energy efficiency by 70%.
By re-using the saltier water flow of the reverse osmosis process, we reduce the amount of required electricity up to 70%
By unique Energy Recovery Technology, the system uses 70% less energy than traditional small-scale desalination. This technology itself is not new, it’s already mainstream on all large desalination facilities. We are able to implement it on a scale that’s suitable for resorts, communities, industries, private properties and municipalities. This simply means no more high electricity bills, as well as the possibility to go off-grid by solar.
2) Chemical-free design of water treatment.
Now the second part of the improvement is the water treatment process. Traditionally, anti-scalants chemicals are introduced to prevent scaling at the reverse osmosis membranes. The same membranes are periodically cleaned with chemicals to preserve them.
Our philosophy and design are one that excludes chemicals. By using an automated fresh flush cycle, we can preserve the membrane with some of our product water. By operating on a lower recovery ratio, we don’t need to introduce antiscalants. And in the process, we have also reduced the salinity of the salt water flow to further minimize the environmental impact.
Over the past 11 years, we have spoken with hundreds of users of traditional desalination systems. Unfortunately, they all share the same challenge when it comes to operation and maintenance: it’s a nightmare. The most common mispractises that we come across include:
– a low-grade intake pump that corrodes and fails within 2 years’ time.
– non-adequate pre-treatment that results in frequent membrane replacement
– waking up to an empty water storage tank in the morning
– a non-responsive supplier when it comes to support
Most of these issues can be simply avoided by proper design that takes into account the actual local set-up and by proper installation and operation. That’s why our engineers and our certified partners make the design based on the local set-up, perform the commissioning on-site and provide extensive training to operate and maintain the system. By investing in high-grade (904L or titanium) pumps, remote monitoring, control and automation and by offering support for trouble-shooting we are committed to ensuring clean water for decades to come.
By energy recovery technology, electricity bills are reduced by 70%. By the water treatment design, the use of chemicals and frequent membrane replacement is avoided. And by using quality components, designed and installed for the specific use case, with support available, the operation and maintenance costs are minimized. This results in the lowest costs of ownership, by investing up-front:
Lukas has joined us to increase our impact by realizing more projects. He’s a sports and nature enthusiast with almost a decade of international experience in business development. He will be available for all your questions to help develop and kickstart your project.
I can run, but cannot walk. Although I murmur, I cannot talk. 99% of what’s fresh of me stays underground. So people search for me all year round. 75% of jobs worldwide depend on me. In my absence, 700 million will have to flee.
Our CEO was proud to be a speaker at the Island Finance Forum 2023. The Forum highlighted the unique challenges faced by global island communities and the solutions for sustainable economic development and inclusive growth.
