Desalination done right.
Make water without high bills. Extremely efficient.
Conventional desalination with reverse osmosis has several downsides. It needs lots of energy, chemicals are used in the process and it’s a nightmare to operate and maintain. The result: very expensive fresh water.
Here’s some good news: we can make water affordable in a sustainable way using 3 simple innovations. How?
- Energy recovery technology as key to 70% energy savings
- Chemical-free design of the water treatment process
- A formula for stress-free operation & maintenance
Together, these steps result in the lowest costs to desalinate water. Our globally implemented solutions save on average 70% on the water bills for resorts, industries, private properties, communities or other water users.
We are pleased to present you our Efficient Water Makers, ranging for water production capacities between 5-150 m³ or 1.300-40.000 gallons per day. All our solutions enjoy unparalleled energy efficiency of around 2,7 kWh/m³ for seawater desalination.
There are several options to choose from, for example, a compact skid-built solution or a plug-and-play containerized version. Learn more about our unique approach below.
70% less energy for desalination.
The breakthrough saving up to 70%:
Energy recovery for extreme efficiency.
Unique Energy Recovery Technology allows our solutions to use 70% less electricity than conventional desalination. By re-using the saltwater flow of the reverse osmosis process, we reduce the amount of required energy by 70%. This technology is not new, it’s already mainstream in all large desalination facilities. We made it suitable for small-scale applications for resorts, industries, private properties, communities or other water users. This saves 7 kWh on each m³ of water produced. Our energy recovery device is maintenance-free.
Solutions up to 150 m³ or 30,000 gallons daily.
Small
- 60% cost savings
- 1,4 kW for desalination
- 210 tons CO2 savings
- option: 8-ft containerized
Medium
- 70% cost savings
- 5,0 kW for desalination
- 950 tons CO2 savings
- option: 8-ft containerized
Large
- 80% cost savings
- 12,4 kW for desalination
- 2.300 tons CO2 savings
- option: 20-ft containerized
Chemical-free water treatment.
Next, we have improved the water treatment process. Traditionally, anti-scalant chemicals are introduced to prevent scaling at the reverse osmosis membranes. The same membranes are periodically cleaned with chemicals to preserve them. These chemicals end up in the environment.
Our philosophy and design exclude chemicals. By using an automated fresh flush cycle, we can preserve the membrane using the product water. By operating on a lower recovery ratio, we don’t need to introduce anti-scalants. In the process, we have also reduced the salinity of the saltwater to further minimize the environmental impact.
The entire water treatment process is based on simple filtration, moving from rougher to finer particle filtration in the pre-treatment, followed by removing the aqueous salts and everything larger in the reverse osmosis process. Afterwards, the water is remineralized. The water quality is measured twice every second to ensure it meets the design parameters. This way, we can ensure high water quality and reliability.
Small Efficient Water Maker: Canary Islands.
Eco resort using compact & easy reverse osmosis.
Medium Efficient Water Maker: Tanzania.
Island resort uses efficient desalination.
Large Efficient Water Maker: Curaçao.
Luxury resort uses efficient desalination.
A formula for stress-free operation.
Over the past +10 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:
– energy-consuming stainless steel intake pump that corrodes and fails within 2 years.
– insufficient 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 troubleshooting and 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 pumps, remote monitoring, control and automation and by offering support for trouble-shooting we are committed to ensuring clean water for decades to come.
Use case: small Efficient Water Maker.
A private island enjoying guilt-free water on-site at 55% lower expenses.
The problem: no fresh water available at acceptable expenses
The private island has a water demand of 9 m³/day due to landscaping and private use. The rain is not reliable and sufficient enough, leaving no alternative for desalination. Two options are available, which first appears to be an easy decision as the standard reverse osmosis solution is about 30% cheaper in the purchase price.
The solution: efficient RO unit
Fortunately, the energy efficiency is considered before making a decision. By choosing the 3x more efficient water maker offered by Elemental Water Makers, water savings of 55% are realised, equal to 112.000 $. Despite the 30% higher purchase price the payback is still less than 1 year, as energy generation on the island is expensive with 0.3 $/kWh.
The benefits: savings, stress-free operation & independence
The compact desalination solution allows the private island owner to enjoy high-quality water on-site, with stress-free operation & remote monitoring, whilst still saving 18 ton CO2 per year. This is a solution for future generations.
Assumptions: costs including installation and training | Yearly inflation of 2% | Reference RO energy consumption: 10 kWh/m³ | Water intake available | Financial lifetime 15 yrs | Technical lifetime >20 yrs | OpEx include consumables, spare parts and membrane replacement.
Water expenses
Water tariff in $/m3
A payback within 1 year & over $100.000 in savings.