Good news on the water desalination front from forbes.com. Here is an excerpt from Ucilia Wang's report: "After over a dozen years of legal and regulatory battles, the largest seawater desalination plant in the United States is under construction and will use a technology that recovers and re-uses energy that would otherwise go to waste.
The $1 billion California project, located in Carlsbad in northern San Diego County, will employ Energy Recovery‘s equipment that captures the energy from the highly pressurized water after it moves through the filter to turn sea water into fresh water and gives the low-pressure water at the intake a boost before it move through the filter.
The technology will help the plant save an estimated 116 million kilowatt hours of energy, or $12 million, per year, the company said. Energy Recovery, based in San Leandro in the San Francisco Bay Area, plans to ship 144 pressure exchangers for the project in November or December, said CEO Tom Rooney.The project is an important contract for Energy Recovery, which is counting on the Carlsbad project to kickstart a construction boom of seawater desalination plants in the country."
This is an important step in developing methods to deal with droughts and concerns over low-amounts of freshwater. As the general supply of freshwater appears to be dwindling from important reserves around the world, the development of an effective method of using the readily available seawater seems to be a good solution for the time being. Furthermore, because a good deal of the population of the planet lives on or near the coasts, seawater desalination could play an important role in keeping these people hydrated.
To read the full report, go here.
The $1 billion California project, located in Carlsbad in northern San Diego County, will employ Energy Recovery‘s equipment that captures the energy from the highly pressurized water after it moves through the filter to turn sea water into fresh water and gives the low-pressure water at the intake a boost before it move through the filter.
The technology will help the plant save an estimated 116 million kilowatt hours of energy, or $12 million, per year, the company said. Energy Recovery, based in San Leandro in the San Francisco Bay Area, plans to ship 144 pressure exchangers for the project in November or December, said CEO Tom Rooney.The project is an important contract for Energy Recovery, which is counting on the Carlsbad project to kickstart a construction boom of seawater desalination plants in the country."
This is an important step in developing methods to deal with droughts and concerns over low-amounts of freshwater. As the general supply of freshwater appears to be dwindling from important reserves around the world, the development of an effective method of using the readily available seawater seems to be a good solution for the time being. Furthermore, because a good deal of the population of the planet lives on or near the coasts, seawater desalination could play an important role in keeping these people hydrated.
To read the full report, go here.
