Israeli researchers start pilot for new desal technology

Scientists at Ben-Gurion University are leading an international project to develop a faster, cheaper method of reverse-osmosis desalination that can be used to clean brackish groundwater.

The technology is being commercialized by a new startup, ROTEC (Reverse Osmosis Technologies), which is already in talks with Israeli national water company Mekorot for financial support of its R&D. Mekorot supplies 80 percent of Israel's drinking water and 70 percent of its entire water supply (see Israel plans largest desal plant in $513M deal).

The team has started building a pilot unit in Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel, which is expected to be operational by the start of 2010, according to a report today in the Jerusalem Post. Next, the scientists plan to build a test facility in Jordan in 2010 or 2011.

Like many desalination projects, the scientists' process involves the energy-intense method of reverse osmosis, which uses pressure or heat to force water through a semipermeable membrane, leaving salts and other impurities behind. Over time, the particles can block the membrane, reducing output. 

However, the Ben-Gurion researchers say they have "developed a method of exploiting the finite kinetics of the membrane fouling processes by periodically relieving the conditions leading to membrane fouling before it can occur," according to the Jerusalem Post. The system uses fewer chemicals and produces less brine, the scientists say.

Lead researcher Jack Gilron told the paper that the system can take 100 cubic meters per hour of well water and produce 92 to 95 cubic meters an hour of purified water—compared to a yield of 80 to 85 cubic meters per hour in a conventional desalination system.

"This greatly reduces the environmental burden and improves the economics of the inland desalination process," he told the paper.

In addition to Ben-Gurion University, the team includes the Hashemite University of Jordan and the University of Colorado at Boulder. The Israeli research was funded in part by grants from the NATO Science for Peace project and the Middle East Desalination Research Center.

The researchers are among many trying to find more efficient and less costly methods of desalination.

Yale University spinout Oasys said earlier this year it developed a low-cost, low-energy desalination and purification technology for seawater, wastewater and industrial waste streams. The company said its forward-osmosis technology uses one-tenth the energy of conventional desalination systems (see Oasys develops energy-efficient osmosis for desalination). 

Anaheim, Calif.-based cleantech incubator Catalyx also uses forward osmosis before employing the traditional reverse osmosis to purify heavily polluted wastewater from the textile and other industries. Catalyx says the result is low-cost and chemical-free (see Catalyx develops two-way osmosis to purify wastewater).

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