Water Treatment - a Novel High Recovery Desalination Process for Brackish Groundwater

 

ROTEC (Reverse Osmosis Technologies) - formerly FR-SDS Ltd - is a water treatment company that develops novel technologies improving desalination processes of brackish groundwater.

Precipitation of sparingly soluble salts cause scaling and is one of the main factors limiting the recovery rate in Reverse Osmosis (RO) or Nano-Filtration (NF) for treating saline or high hardness water sources.

The process at the base of the technology is designated to prevent scaling and bio-fouling in RO or NF membrane systems. The process is being controlled by a sophisticated and unique ultrasonic sensor, being developed also, which serves as an early warning scaling/fouling alert.

Among the competitive advantages of the technology:

  • Increase potential recovery rate from 85% to 95%.
  • Reduce pre-treatment plant size, capital investment and brine disposal.
  • Reduce energy and anti-scalant (chemical) consumptions.
  • Makes development of water resources economically viable where otherwise marginal because of brine management issues.
  • Developed technology can be introduced as a retrofit or in grass roots plant designs.
  • Increasing recovery rate can result in increases in plants existing capacity by 5-12%.
  • Environmental contribution by reduction of brine discharge volume.

The Market
Value of RO market by selling equipment is based on $6.5 Billion annual capital expenditures between 2010 and 2015. Brackish RO desalination portion is $1.2 Billion/year and growing faster than Sea water RO desalination market. FR potential sales due to equipment savings is expected to be 2% = $24 Million/Year

Value of FR market by selling due to operation expenditure savings for the customer is based on 9 cents/m3 saving in overall costs for brackish water desalination (15 million m3/day)= $450M/Year. FR potential sales due to water cost savings is expected to be 3%= $14 Million/year.

Therefore ROTEC compound potential sales by 2015 are $38 Million/year

Municipal wastewater treatment by membrane desalination as the tertiary or quaternary treatment will contribute to ROTEC market potential after penetration to brackish water market. Further FR improvements for greater recovery in SWRO will add this huge market to the company's feasible forecasts within 4-5 years.

 
Potential End Users

·        Water Authorities: ROTEC may allow use of brackish water sources that were previously prohibitive because of high brine-disposal costs.

·       Engineering Firms (Hyflux, CH2M-Hill, Siemens Water Technologies, GE Water): Use of ROTEC technology will enable the design of more cost-competitive desalination plants especially in inland regions.

·      Operating Companies: Retrofitting of existing desalination plants with ROTEC hybrid design could increase recovery and reduce the operating costs of existing plants. 

 

The Technology

The Flow reversal process (also named RoRo™) works by changing the place of the entrance and exit of the feed, before the induction time of the supersaturated solution along the membrane wall runs out and precipitation occurs.  At the exit of a RO/NF pressure vessel with high recovery the concentrated pressurized solution next to the membrane wall is at supersaturation.  After a time period denoted “the induction time” required for crystal nuclei to reach a critical size, the sparingly soluble salt will begin to precipitate on the membrane wall. The greater the supersaturation the shorter the induction time. Reversing the flow before the induction time of the system is reached replaces the supersaturated brine at the exit with the unsaturated feed flow and thus “zeroes the induction clock” by sweeping away the crystal nuclei before they have had a chance to reach a critical size needed for continuous precipitation. The sensor that will be developed will detect the crystal nuclei or the colloid accumulation, and will then signal and trigger the flow reversal.   

(RoRo™ - Rotational Reverse Osmosis)   


ROTEC was established in February 2009, and is a part of ATI's Cleantech Group.  The company will operate in the course of 2009 two industrial pilot systems at beta sites in Israel and Jordan.  

 

The Team

Dr. Noam Perlmuter, CEO - Ph.D. degree in Eco-toxicology, M.Sc. degree in Ecology and Environmental Quality, B.Sc. degree in Biology. 10 years experience in R&D, projects management and business development. 

Dr. Jack Gilron, CTO - (D.Sc., Chem. Eng., Technion)  is senior scientist at the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Ben Gurion University. 

Having worked in industry for nearly 15 years in water treatment and in membrane technology with over a half dozen patents or patents pending, Dr. Gilron now studies high recovery desalination processes as well as membrane fouling phenomena.


Prof. E. Korin, Consultant - (Ph.D., Chem. Eng. Ben-Gurion Univ.), holder of the Lady Cohen Chair in Chemical Engineering Processes at Ben Gurion University, has been a member of the BGU dept. of chemical engineering since 1988 most recently serving as chairman of the department.   A member of both the American and Israel Institutes of Chemical Engineering, and the Israel Society for Crystallization, he has been appointed a member of the Working Parties on crystallization and on Drying of the European Federation of Chemical Engineers.  With 28 publications and 10 patent/applications, he has an active research program with both M.Sc. and PhD students. 

        


Contact

Address: ROTEC Ltd. North Ind. Park, POBox 7284, Ashkelon 78172, Israel

Mobile:  +972-54-5319319

Office:    +972 -8-6758727

Fax:         +972-8-6751113

Email: noam@rotec-water.com , office@rotec-water.com

Website: www.rotec-water.com