Elemental Water Makers, desalination driven by renewable energy

Elemental Water Makers provides complete reverse osmosis systems driven by solar, wind and/or wave energy to enable affordable fresh water on-site. Our solutions solve fresh water scarcity, while only using the sea, sun, earth & wind. As a result of increasing fresh water scarcity and limited availability of fossil fuels, we came up with the solution that enables affordable fresh water from seawater or brackish water using only renewable energy: Fresh water is a scarce commodity. Of all the water available on Earth, only a small part is fresh water. Most of it is inaccessible, captured in icecaps and glaciers or stored underground. Easily accessible surface water reaches only 0.3% of the limited fresh water available. Whether a region experiences fresh water scarcity is dependent on its location. Warm regions with limited fresh water resources are most likely to experience scarcity. Desalination of seawater or brackish groundwater is a common solution for these regions. Each day 80 million cubic meters of water is desalinated globally. This is equivalent to 0.7% of the global water supply. However, desalination also accounts for 0.5% of the global electricity consumption, indicating the energy intensity of the process. The dominant and most energy efficient desalination technology is reverse osmosis, which produces 60% of all desalinated water. Fossil fuel scarcityand rising energy prices, increase water costs. Climate change effects, population growth, rising living standards and salinization of aquifers lead to extra demand for desalination. With unlimited salt water availability, increasing renewable energy opportunities, and growing environmental awareness, the next logical step is coupling renewable energy and desalination. However, there is one main barrier. Reverse osmosis is designed for continuous operation, while renewables fluctuate over time. We at Elemental Water Makers have developed a solution which enables a constant reverse osmosis process, while using only fluctuating renewable energy. By operating continuously & energy efficient without the use of batteries and with limited maintenance, we can assure a low water price. The system uses mature technology and is scalable for different capacities. It offers an eco-friendly solution by avoiding the use of fossil fuels and is suitable for stand-alone operation. Elemental Water Makers provides customized renewable energy driven desalination systems for fresh water production. Now let us explain the system.The system uses wind or solar energy connected directly to a pump, which displaces salt water when there is renewable energy available. The saline source water is displaced towards an elevated water buffer, which will provide the pressure required for the reverse osmosis process.However, this would require a significant elevation difference in the surroundings. A salinity increase in the source water requires more elevation. To overcome this limitation we greatly reduce the amount of elevation difference required, by re-using the energy of the brine flow, using an Energy Recovery Device. By correctly sizing all components, fresh water is produced at a consistent rate, 24 hours a day, using the constant pressure provided by the elevated water buffer. Because of the salt water buffer, the system runs continuously without any auxiliary power, storing the fresh water in a water tank. Pre-filtration and post treatment are also part of the system and depend on the source water quality. Once the water and location parameters are known, Elemental Water Makers provides an efficient and eco-friendly customized solution. Elemental Water Makers is a spinoff company of the University of Technology Delft in The Netherlands and has won several awards with their renewable driven desalination technology. The technology has been successfully tested in the field during a pilot in Indonesia and is ready for commercial implementation. If you’re looking for an affordable and sustainable fresh water supply, contact us and join us in solving fresh water scarcity, using only the sea, sun, earth and wind. Patent pending, application number: International: PCT/NL2015/050290 United Kingdom: GB1407588.1 The Netherlands: NL2012722