Cheaper way found to make sea water drinkable

WORLD CITIES SUMMIT/INTERNATIONAL WATER WEEK
Siemens' energy- efficient method bags it $4m S'pore grant
Tania Tan, Straits Times 24 Jun 08;

A TEAM of researchers has come up with a way of producing drinking water from sea water using half the amount of energy.

For its breakthrough, the Siemens Water Technologies team yesterday bagged a $4 million grant from the Environment and Water Industry Development Council (EWI).

Taking the salt out of sea water to make it drinkable is now a famously energy-guzzling - and expensive - process.

Professor Lui Pao Chuen, who chairs the EWI's evaluation panel, noted that over 80 per cent of the current costs of desalination goes into paying for the energy required.

The Siemens team, responding to the EWI's challenge issued last year to design a more energy-efficient desalination technique, beat 34 other teams in coming up with its desalination method.

It used electricity instead of high pressure or heat to remove salt from sea water, and produced a cubic metre of pure drinking water on 1.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power.

Desalination methods around the world now use twice that amount of power.

While conventional desalination methods push water through a membrane, the Siemens team's method involves passing sea water through electric fields to draw out its salt, explained Siemens vice-president of R&D Ruediger Knauf.

PUB technology director Harry Seah described the novel approach as one which 'blows convention away'.

Prof Lui agreed, saying: 'This is what we call disruptive technology - and it's exactly what we're looking for.'

Siemens will work with national water agency PUB over the next three years to put the technology through further tests.

Sea water, though an abundant resource, has yet to be tapped as a viable source of potable water worldwide because of the high costs of desalination.

Most countries have thus turned to rainwater, while a handful have embraced recycled water.

Singapore's reclaimed water, Newater, needs only 0.7 kWh to produce one cubic metre of ultra-pure water.

More energy-efficient desalination will be a boon to coastal cities like Singapore, said Prof Lui.

Desalination is now one of this country's four 'national taps'. The process supplies up to 10 per cent of the national usage, with the other three taps - reservoir water, imported water and Newater - providing the rest.

Mr Seah said that if the new energy-efficient technology passes more rigorous tests, desalination could become more widely used here to make Singapore more self-reliant in water.

News of this new technology is a prelude to the cutting-edge technologies that will be on show at the Singapore International Water Week, which officially opens today.

The four-day event at the Suntec convention centre has attracted over 5,000 delegates and 390 companies in the water-technology business.

German, Japanese firms embark on water R&D programmes in Singapore
Channel NewsAsia 23 Jun 08;

SINGAPORE: Singapore is strengthening its efforts to be self-sufficient in tackling water needs.

National water agency PUB is working with two international players to develop more energy-efficient technologies for the benefit of consumers, and S$10 million has been ploughed into this research.

Currently, the republic has four 'national taps' – water from Malaysia, its own water catchments, NeWater and desalinated water – and more steps are being taken to harness technology in NeWater and desalination.

Japanese manufacturer Nitto Denko is pumping in S$6 million over the next five years into an R&D facility here to develop cheaper water membrane solutions. With its US unit, Hydranautics, Nitto Denko will work with engineering firms like Hyflux and Keppel, and the universities in Singapore.

Brett Andrews, president and COO of Hydranautics, said: "The focus of the R&D plant would be to look at new innovation technology for water reuse and desalination.

"For example, we'll be looking at using our membrane bio-reactor technology to treat waste water to RO (reverse osmosis) for recycle, which will greatly improve the performance and reduce the cost of recycling water."

Germany's Siemens is also up to a challenge from Singapore's Environment and Water Industry Development Council.

It is getting S$4 million to develop an innovative seawater desalination technology which will be at least 50 percent more energy efficient than existing technologies.

Dr Ruediger Knauf, vice president of R&D, Siemens, said: "We will establish a team of roughly fifteen people working out of Singapore and globally. The 15 people will also work with the local research organisations to develop the technology."

The research outcomes are expected to benefit the man in the street.

Professor Lui Pao Chuen, Environment and Water Industry Development Council, said: "If we can make use of this technology for desalination, then the price of water from this source will be lower.

"When you use this technology, the carbon footprint will be lower too because you consume less energy. Lower cost also means it will be more viable economically."

During the week-long Singapore International Water Week and the World Cities Summit, participants will be able to find out some of the vast business and investment opportunities that are available in urban development and water technologies in different parts of the world.

Some of the countries which intend to go big with business forums include India, China and the Middle Eastern region.

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will open the summit on Tuesday.- CNA/so

Japanese firm to invest $6m in water R&D centre
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 24 Jun 08;

JAPANESE firm Nitto Denko announced yesterday that it will invest $6 million here over the next five years in a water research and development (R&D) centre.

The centre - the first of its kind set up by a Japanese firm - will be allied to Singapore's own growing water-treatment industry and the national water agency PUB.

It will be sited at WaterHub, the agency's R&D centre in Jurong East. Initially, 10 engineers - local and foreign - will be employed.

Nitto Denko, a leading diversified materials company, is a long-time partner of PUB. The firm supplies the reverse osmosis membranes used in various Newater projects.

It plans to have the R&D centre established by August, with the aim of forging closer ties with local water-related engineering companies such as Hyflux and Keppel Corporation.

'The centre will carry out practical-use evaluation tests of products developed in Singapore,' said Mr Minoru Kikuoka, global head of Nitto Denko's membrane unit.

'We firmly believe that Singapore's water technology development will be further enhanced through our activities here.'

The 300 sq m facility will bolster the thriving water industry here and underline Singapore's claims as a 'global knowledge hub in water technology...and bring us closer to our aspirations of being a global hydrohub', said Economic Development Board's assistant managing director, Mr Kenneth Tan.

It will also 'pave the way for strong ties between Japan and Singapore in water-related R&D', he added.

Nitto Denko's announcement was made on the first day of the four-day inaugural Singapore International Water Week at Suntec.

The event brings together about 5,000 government officials and policymakers to discuss water issues.

Towards a cheaper sip of seawater
Cheow Xin Yi, Today Online 24 Jun 08;

IT MAKES up just 10 per cent of Singapore’s water supply, but desalinated water could constitute a bigger pipeline for the island’s needs — given a new technology that could bring down production costs within three years.

This is thanks to a partnership forged between the Government and Siemens Water Technology. The latter will get a $4-million grant from the Environment and Water Industry Development Council (EWI) to develop a technology that cuts :desalination’s energy consumption by half. Siemens is expected to pilot-test the technology on Public Utilities Board (PUB) facilities within the next three years.

Would a successful outcome — meaning a 20-per-cent cost reduction for desalination based on current electricity prices — pave the way for a second desalination plant here?

Desalinated water — often known as the “fourth national tap” — may not make up the bulk of our water supply, but Professor Lui Pao Chuen, Ministry of Foreign Affairs chief scientific adviser, said: “There may come a time when we need desalination. So, it’s about making options available instead of finding an immediate solution.”

The other three “taps” are imported water from Malaysia, which contributes about 40 per cent of our supply, rainwater collected in local catchment areas, and recycled sewage water, or Newater. The first water agreement with Malaysia is up for renewal in 2011.

PUB director for business capability Harry Seah said Newater is “still a very big focus for the PUB”. It supplies 15 per cent of the nation’s needs, a figure that will rise to 30 per cent in 2010 with the fifth Newater plant.

“NEWater can be cleaned up, used and recycled again” with less energy than producing the same amount of water through desalination, Mr Seah pointed out. Integrating both approaches — with water produced from a desalination plant later renewed through recycling — is the “most sustainable way” of managing our water supply, he added.

But the PUB is “always open to options”, given that “Singapore is an island”, Mr Seah noted.

Singapore opened its first desalination plant, one of the region’s biggest, in Tuas in 2005. A public-private partnership between Hyflux and the PUB, it supplies 10 per cent of Singapore’s water consumption.

Besides cutting costs, the new technology would also lower the carbon footprint of desalination processes, said Prof Lui, who chairs the EWI’s evaluation panel that picked Siemen for the project from among 35 proposals.

“The two benefits — lower carbon dioxide emissions and lower costs — means economically, it’ll be more viable,” said Prof Lui.

Siemen’s proposal is based on the belief that the future of desalination lies with electrically-driven processes instead of the conventional reverse-osmosis method.

“Electrodialysis and electro de-ionisation are already widely known. What’s new is the integration of the different technologies in a way that results in higher performance and low energy demand,” said Dr Ruediger Knauf, vice-president of research and development at Siemens.

Siemens will also pump its own money and work with local research organisations to develop the technology. Dr Knauf said the concept for the technology has been patented, and that the PUB will be the first to make use of it.

And if Singapore decided to build a second plant, would Siemens be keen on having a hand in it?

“It is going to take about three years before we start commercialising the new technology. And it also depends on the Government. If everything goes well, it might be a option,” said Mr Jagannath Rao, president of Siemens Water Technology in Asia.

Siemens Water gets $4m for desalination R&D
Business Times 24 Jun 08;

SIEMENS Water Technologies will get almost $4 million to research and develop seawater desalination technology at its Singapore R&D Centre. The Environment & Water Industry Development Council (EWI), set up by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources to push the development of the industry in Singapore, launched a request for proposal for seawater desalination last July.

The challenge is to develop energy-efficient desalination to produce potable water. Thirty-five proposals were received and that from Siemens stood out 'due to its novelty and fundamentally sound scientific principles', said Lui Pao Chuen of EWI. 'As the global community turns increasingly towards seawater desalination for the production of potable water, we are confident the development of this technology will bring benefits to many parts of the world.'

Chuck Gordon, chief executive officer of Siemens Water Technologies, said: 'This industry-advancing research and development effort will point the way forward to more efficiently manage this valuable resource.'

The company said its process, which involves electrodialysis and ion exchange, requires less energy than thermal or pressure-driven processes.

Separately, eight scholarships will be given out tomorrow. The scholarships, for post-graduate study, aim to train specialist manpower for the environment and water technology industry and research organisations.

PUB lends water firms a hand
Business Times 24 Jun 08;

Huber Technology and PulverDryer Technologies benefit from observations and results of tests, reports OH BOON PING

DESPITE developing innovative products with plenty of potential, most water technology companies had no way to test them to assess their strength.

But not anymore, thanks to national water agency PUB. It has opened up its water reclamation plants, NEWater factories and water treatment plants for companies to do test-bedding and run trials and pilot projects for their products.

For example, Huber Technology Asia-Pacific has run trials of its Huber vacuum rotation membrane at PUB's Jurong water reclamation plant to showcase the membrane to potential customers in Singapore and South-east Asia.

Another example is that of PulverDryer Technologies, which uses patented non-thermal technology to dry municipal sludge. To help the company test and market the technology, PUB has allowed it to set up and operate a pilot plant using the PulverDryer system at Bedok water reclamation plant.

Both companies have benefited from observations and results during the trials.

Huber was able to prove to potential customers that its membrane could reliably produce good effluent. After the trial, Huber was in a position to produce booklets that clearly illustrated the set-up, results and problems of the VRM plant. It eventually used these booklets to explain the technology to prospective customers in Singapore and the region.

Managing director Franz Heindl said: 'Thanks to the excellent cooperation of PUB, and especially its staff at Jurong water reclamation plant, we could not only showcase the Huber VRM membrane system's excellent performance at the site. It also allowed us to explore further possibilities to adapt it to specific local conditions and be even more competitive eventually.

'Due to the fact that the waste water in Jurong is particularly difficult to treat because of the high content of industrial origin, we are even more pleased to have shown an extremely reliable performance and outstanding results.'

As for PulverDryer Technologies, a pilot plant allowed the company to fine-tune the design and operating parameters of the PulverDryer System. PulverDryer technology offers an alternative to the conventional thermal sludge-drying methods. It has the potential to achieve high energy-efficiency and cost-effectiveness in drying sludge.

Harry Seah, PUB director for technology and water quality, said: 'Singapore is well-placed to take the lead as an R&D base. By providing PUB's installations as a test-bedding and piloting base for new innovative water technologies, we have helped to create a conducive environment that encourages generation, testing and adoption of new ideas, boosting Singapore's reputation as a global hydro-hub and provider of waters solutions for the world.

'The Singapore International Water Week that is taking place this week will provide an ideal platform to showcase such technologies, which offer effective and sustainable solutions in water management.'

Businesses can gain first-mover advantage by developing ideas that maximise the use of a government asset under the First Mover Framework. Championed by The Pro-Enterprise Panel (PEP), the framework provides a way for state agencies to recognise and encourage the development of innovative ideas that maximise the use of public assets such as land and buildings. Interested parties can apply at www.firstmover.gov.sg.

The Pro-Enterprise Panel (PEP) was established in 2000 to solicit feedback from businesses on how government rules and regulations can be improved to create a more pro-enterprise environment in Singapore. The panel is chaired by the Head of Civil Service, Peter Ho, and comprises mainly business leaders from the private sector.