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Next-Generation Clean-Water Technologies Emerge

China plans to raise the price of water later this year. News of the change sparked a surge in stock prices for water utilities and higher valuations for advanced water technology companies. Here is a snapshot of the latter:

Desalination Technology Overview

Desalination technology costs have fallen by as much as 80% over the past few years. Meanwhile, the total global desalination capacity growth of more than 47% over the past five years, according to a recent Credit Suisse investment report, and all of a sudden, desalination looks a bit more attractive.

The reverse osmosis process, which separates out salt with a membrane, costs about 50 cents per cubic meter of water. Reverse osmosis systems also have to be monitored so that the membrane doesn’t get fouled or clogged.

NanoH20

NanoH20 has developed a membrane that attracts water molecules and repels other types of molecules, thus speeding up the desalination process. A membrane that uses nanotechnology to separate pure water from seawater at a lower energy cost than existing reverse osmosis membranes. NanoH2O’s next generation reverse osmosis membranes are thin-film composite membranes that contain nano-structured material. Their enhanced permeability should enable dramatic improvements to be made in the process economics of seawater reverse osmosis. NanoH2O claims that their thin-film nanocomposite membranes will allow 10-15% to be shaved off the cost of producing potable grade water. The company aims to have its first commercial product available within 18-24 months. Research into the application of the technology in brackish water and fresh water scenarios is planned to follow from 2009, making the product suitable for a variety of desalination and water reuse applications.

Dais Analytic

Dais Analytic’s “new generation of desalination technology” concentrates on desalination by molecular diffusion. This low-cost, pressure desalination process uses commercialized nanotechnology, and employs a solid polymer membrane to reject dissolved solids by size, polarity and diffusion concentration, leaving fewer than 100 PPM TDS. The Dais “MD” membrane does not foul or need regeneration, nor does it scale or support marine growth, making it a viable option where environmental concerns are uppermost. It can be used in applications with capacities of up to 10,000m3/d.

CH2M Hill

A US-based employee-owned engineering company with a global reach, CH2M Hill has secured a number of cutting-edge projects in 2007, including the zero discharge Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, the water system programme management for the City of Chicago, Luggage Point Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Australia, Santa Fe Buckman Direct Diversion Intake, and what will be the largest UF membrane plant in the world at Lakeview, Canada. Completed projects for the year include a contamination warning system for Glendale, Arizona, which is the first of its kind in the world, the design of the Fusina Integrated Wetlands Treatment Project near Venice, Italy, and the PowerSeraya SWRO desalination plant in Singapore.

Hyflux

The initial public offering on the Singapore Stock Exchange of Hyflux’s Chinese investment vehicle, including interests in 13 water and waste-water projects. It was priced at S$0.78 per share, giving a market capitalization of S$234 million (US$161 million). JPMorgan advised Hyflux on the transaction. US fund manager Fidelity took a 10% stake.

• Hyflux Trust creates a new model for investment in the water sector which we can expect to be replicated elsewhere.
• The deal was a perfectly executed piece of innovative financial engineering pulled off in difficult market conditions.
• The trust will lead to accelerated investment in the Chinese water and wastewater sector, at a time when water availability and environmental pollution threaten to become the bottlenecks in the Chinese economy.

EarthWater Global

EarthWater Global’s premise is simple: to provide a cost-effective solution to current and future water shortages by exploiting previously undiscovered groundwater resources. At the core of the company’s business proposition is the “leaky crust” paradigm, which draws on plate tectonics and associated large-scale permeability to enable previously untapped groundwater resources to be abstracted from so-called “megawatersheds”.

EarthWater Global combines private equity, technological and business innovations to discover, develop and deliver affordable, sustainable and renewable fresh water, representing the next generation of megawatershed development. The company fully finances turnkey production & supply projects, offering short delivery timescales, a low environmental impact and very low energy requirements.

Clathrate Desalination (Mouchel and Water Science)

A joint venture between Mouchel and Water Science has come up with a new approach to separating fresh water from seawater based on trapping water molecules in carbon dioxide molecules as clathrates. Carbon dioxide forms a clathrate with water spontaneously at more than 30 bar pressure and less than 80 degrees Celcius temperature. The new multipass solution developed by the team for separating and cleaning the clathrate crystals holds the key to the concept’s main attraction - ultra-low energy use. The breakthrough system is predicted to reduce energy consumption to below 1.3 kWh/m3, with the thermodynamics of salt solutions providing the simple explanation behind the baseline economics. The goal is to apply the technology in large-scale industrial desalination plants, remote desalination facilities using renewable energy, and in the oil & gas sector, for the treatment of waste well water.

Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction

In 2007, Doosan Hydro won three major deals: the 136,000m3/d Shuwaikh SWRO plant in Kuwait, the 150,000m3/d Shoaiba extension in Saudi Arabia, and the 65,000m3/d wastewater RO plant at Luggage Point, Queensland. With Hydro’s historic small-scale RO business continuing to grow apace, the company doubled its staff and revenues during the year.