Improving the process of desalination is a slow-and-steady task, and it’s absolutely necessary.
Innovative minds are working toward the Holy Grail of desalination technology efficient enough to meet the planet's future needs
With seven billion people and counting, how in the world can we pump out enough fresh water for everyone in the 21st century? The answer may come from a new worldwide challenge and from energy-saving technology that takes the salt out of seawater.
"Finding a more efficient method of desalinating water will be a game changer in our collective pursuit of a more sustainable energy future across the globe," says Nabil Al-Khowaiter, Aramco Entrepreneurship's Director of Special Projects.
To this end, the Saudi company and GE ecomagination launched a global innovation challenge in April. The worldwide contest offers four winners prizes of $50,000 each if they can come up with more efficient ways of creating fresh water from the seas.
The best ideas will be considered for investment toward making them commercially viable. Winners will be announced in November. The challenge's sponsors say it's important to inspire scientists and innovators because the need for energy efficient fresh water keeps growing, in Saudi Arabia and around the world.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has been pursuing a strategy of maximizing its fossil fuel resources for exports and is looking for breakthroughs and gains in sustainability at home.
Meanwhile in California, pistons are churning away at a demonstration project called the Integrated Pump and Recovery (IPER) system. Designed and built by GE Power & Water, the system can churn out 1,000 cubic metres of fresh water per day, using the displacement created by a hydraulic pump and cylinders − pistons − instead of an energy-hogging crankshaft and motor.
"The real novelty is that we take the seawater and use it, and the energy, to move the pistons," says Glenn Vicevic, Project Management Leader for GE Power & Water in Oakville, Ont. "It should be able to reduce the energy required for desalination by 10 per cent. The energy cost for desalination is normally 70 per cent of the operating cost of the plant."
GE hopes to replicate the demonstration project at other sites around the world, Vicevic says.
While this may sound like a small step toward a major breakthrough, improving desalination is a slow-and-steady task, and it's absolutely necessary. "It's small, incremental work, and the low-hanging fruit has already been taken," says Vicevic. "But there is progress," he adds, and the hope is that there will be more progress this year.
There are already more than 5,000 desalination plants operating around the world, including GE-built facilities such as one in Oman, pumping out 24 million cubic metres of fresh water per day, says Vicevic. That's the equivalent of about 10,000 Olympic swimming pools being created daily.
The challenge is that desalination technology, up to now, has been highly energy intensive. Worldwide production of desalinated water uses approximately 75.2 terawatt hours of electricity per year, which is enough to power nearly 7 million homes.
The market for better desalination technology is almost limitless if the energy efficiency can be improved significantly, Vicevic says. "We're looking at how to get more water at a lower and lower cost," he says. "Ideally, you could have pre-engineered systems, a suite that one could just take off the shelf, press print and you could build it."
In addition to adapting conventional technology such as pistons (which have been powering machines since the 19th century), the challenge is to develop "new pumps and new membranes that have better ability to reject salt."
While it's obviously an imperative for water-challenged regions of the world like the Middle East to see desalination technology improve, there's a place for it everywhere, Vicevic says.
"It's in demand in the Caribbean, in Africa and on both the east and west coasts of North America," he says. Another possible market is Canada's oil sands, where it may be possible to tap into briny underground aquifers for both industry and communities, he adds.
For more innovation insights, visit www.gereports.ca
This content was produced by The Globe and Mail's advertising department, in consultation with GE. The Globe's editorial department was not involved in its creation.