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DESALINATION BREAKTHROUGH
By:
Dr. William M. Turner*
According to the World Watch 2000 report, we are depleting our water resources to the tune of 109 billion gallons per day. President Kennedy said in 1961 "If we could ever competitively, at a cheap rate, get freshwater from saltwater, that would be in the long-range interests of humanity and would dwarf any other scientific accomplishments.
Henry Lloyd, President and CEO of AquaSonics International, Inc. says they have done it. Their Rapid Spray Distillation© ( RSD©) process desalinates water at a fraction of the cost of current methods. RSD© is based on the principle that saline water is ejected at high velocities in a patented process. Rapid evaporation occurs and is condensed into drinking water. Dissolved salts precipitate as a solid phase and are removed. This single stage process reduces disposal costs and provides raw materials."
The RSD© technology achieves in one step what current reverse osmosis and multi-stage flash requires multiple steps to accomplish. is three times more efficient in processing sea-water. The thermodynamics and aqueous chemistry of the process is extremely straightforward. Bench testing shows 95% efficiency in recovery of fresh water and separation of salts in a single stage versus 36% efficiency for other processes.
Because of the simplicity of the process construction costs are estimated to be at least half of present multi-stage flash and reverse osmosis systems. Operating costs are a fraction of traditional technologies because of the high efficiency of RSD©.Operating and maintenance costs are also a fraction of traditional methods because of the almost complete absence of moving parts. Aquasonics believes that three times the volume of fresh water can be generated with for the same cost as traditional methods.. The projected impact on total costs would be to reduce the overall expenditure for RSD© desalinated water to one-quarter the cost of current methods, making fresh water available where it is now scarce.
* Dr. Turner is an internationally recognized hydrologist and water expert with more than 35 years experience throughout North America, Africa, and South America. He operates WaterBank.Com® , the largest and most active Internet-based, water asset marketing web site. He is also the Natural Resources Trustee for the State of New Mexico in the United States and a member of the Governor of New Mexico's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Water. He is commonly called on to act as a moderator at international water conferences. Click here for additional information on Dr. Turner.
FOR INFORMATION ON LICENSING OPPORTUNITIES CONTACT: DR. WILLIAM M. TURNER
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