In the News

Taking Desalination to the Next Level, Energy Efficiency Is Key to Tapping the Seas

Earth: the Blue Planet. Its nickname is derived from the fact that about 70 percent of its surface is covered by water. Yet despite its abundance, water that is readily adaptable for drinking is in short supply. In fact, about 97 percent of all water found on our home planet is saltwater that must be treated before it can be used for consumption, irrigation or industrial processes.

To make matters worse, trends in human population, as well as changes in climate, are placing an increasing demand for freshwater across the globe. A growing global population needs water for consumption, as well as irrigation for food production, while industrialization in emerging areas like China, India and Brazil, among others, is stressing water resources even further. In the United States, a population shift to the Southwest and Southeast means that those arid areas must find new ways of obtaining water.

The key to expanding the use of desalination has come down to finding a way to reduce the energy required to desalinate water, thus making it an economically viable option. One company, based in San Leandro, Calif., is making cost-effective desalination closer to a reality.

China Takes a Loss to Get Ahead in the Business of Fresh Water

“There are large-scale desalination projects centralized all up and down the east coast of China,” ERI’s chief executive officer, Thomas S. Rooney Jr., said in an interview. “Our company has the most advanced technology in the entire desalination industry. And one of the beautiful things about China is that they like to adopt the most advanced technologies.”
 

“You can either fight them or join them, and our philosophy is that China likely is going to be the next big desalination market,” he added. “I would rather develop technology for China in China and take a more open approach than play the secrets game.”

ERI Chief Calls for Less Plant Downtime

ERI chose the IDA to announce enhancements to its PX Pressure Exchanger™ (PX™) technology for seawater reverse-osmosis systems, including a 97.2% efficiency guarantee.

ERI says that this introduction for the PX-Q300 underscores its ongoing commitment to ensuring that SWRO facilities are free from any costly, unplanned downtime and that their desalination processes use the best economic solution available.

 

Dispatches From Ontario: More Fresh Water With Less Energy

Solutions to environmental challenges are often laden with paradoxes. Let’s take the case of desalination of sea water to make potable water. It’s becoming more common in some parts of the world, including the Mediterranean region and Australia. But there’s a catch: it’s energy-intensive, therefore carbon intensive, and for that reason it ends up contributing to the climate change cycle.

Breaking ground in desalination performance and energy efficiency with high-pressure pump innovation

The high pressure pump is the heart of the desalination process—every desalination plant must have at least one high pressure pump. In plants with multiple trains, which are modular desalination units that consist of membranes, pumps, energy recovery devices, etc., each train also typically has a high pressure pump. The trains typically share common piping headers and may share common system pretreatment.

Californians need water, but desalination projects are bogged down

Chugging a cool glass of California tap? It could be seawater flowing from that faucet.

Desalination — the process of making salty water drinkable — is now producing a growing share of the national water supply as officials scramble to hydrate booming populations with dwindling fresh supply.

The Secret to Desalination: Ceramics

Think of the Pressure Exchanger from Energy Recovery as an industrial Super Soaker. The company's energy-efficient desalination system revolves around applying pressure to "slugs" of water. Seawater has to be pressurized to a high level before a desalination membrane can filter out the salt and other impurities.
 

SWRO desalination: Long-term solution for water shortages

Drought in Barcelona was forcing the government to transport water into the city. To provide a long-term solution, the Llobregat Desalination Plant was commissioned and built within two years. The success of this endeavor was marked with the award of the 2010 Global Water Intelligence Desalination Plant of the Year.
 

SWRO Desalination: A Viable, Long-Term Solution to Water Scarcity

Twenty years ago, I was engaged in a pioneering attempt to drought-proof the City of Santa Barbara, Calif., by building a series of trailer-mounted emergency desalination plants. I also have been directly involved in the design of hundreds of desalination plants operating worldwide. Since that time, the water supply/demand equation has shifted dramatically with a profound impact on municipal water rates. The evolution of technology also has increased the affordability of desalination.

Desal on the Rise

New processes that complement reuse and strategies are changing the way we look at desalination. Most of the water we use comes from rivers, lakes, and aquifers, but as extraction reaches historic maximum levels, available supply diminishes to minimum levels. The dwindling water supply has tripled water rates and increased water rationing along the California coastline and in other parts of the world.