Water technology R&D centre to open next week

GE partners NUS to develop safe drinking water systems across Asia
Lee U-Wen, Business Times 19 Jun 09;

A $150 million research and development centre that aims to develop safe drinking water systems across Asia will open here next Monday.

The opening of NUS-GE Singapore Water Technology Centre - within the school of engineering at the National University of Singapore - coincides with the start of the second annual Singapore International Water Week, on June 22-26.

Already, the first scientists, engineers and researchers have started work at the centre, with all equipment and facilities expected to be in place by the first quarter of next year.

GE has hired 37 people and there are plans to ramp up manpower to about 100, Kevin Cassidy, general manager (Asia-Pacific) of GE Water & Process Technologies, said yesterday.

Mr Cassidy and other senior GE Water and NUS staff were speaking to reporters during a tour of the 2,700 square metre centre, which occupies a building at the engineering faculty and some space in the Temasek Engineering Building.

The centre will be officially opened by National Research Foundation chairman Tony Tan, NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan and GE Water & Process Technologies chief executive and president Heiner Markhoff.

GE's partnership with NUS is its first with a university in the Asia-Pacific.

Michael Saunders, director of the NUS Environmental Research Institute, said that the centre would go a long way towards supporting Singapore's strategy of becoming a global water technology hub.

Mr Cassidy said that the centre would actively engage government agencies as part of an inclusive working relationship. 'The Public Utilities Board is a customer of ours, and what we can offer is a place for them to test some new technologies.'

On the reason for basing the centre here, he said that Singapore was 'one of the most progressive countries in addressing water issues'.

The opening of the centre could not have come at a more opportune time.

Worldwide demand for water last year came to 313 billion cubic metres - a figure that is expected to surge to 870 billion cubic metres by 2030.

Today, the World Health Organization estimates that about 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water.

And by 2025, some 2.8 billion people will be living in water scarce areas.

Recent studies have shown that about 95 per cent of the world's cities still dump raw sewage into their water, underscoring the need for more modern treatment systems in industrialised and developing countries.

NUS, GE set up water research facility
$150m centre will study ways to make potable water that is economical to produce
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 19 Jun 09;

WATER-TECHNOLOGY developer GE Water has twinned itself with the National University of Singapore (NUS) to come up with ways to make water safe to drink and economical to produce.

The two sides will do research in a new $150 million centre located in NUS' engineering faculty. The NUS-GE Singapore Water Technology Centre, to be officially opened next Monday, is GE Water's first collaboration with an Asia-Pacific university.

This puts the 2,700 sq m facility smack within a region where up to 90 per cent of countries do not have adequate technology to provide safe, drinkable water, according to Professor Michael Saunders, the director of the NUS Environmental Research Institute.

The water technology resulting from the research has 'exceptional' market potential regionally, he said.

Parts of China for example, have access only to extremely contaminated water, he noted. 'That's a market, that's a critical need. But we have to look at making these systems much cheaper.'

The pool of 37 scientists and engineers of the centre will eventually be expanded to about 100.

Researchers will seek up to $70 million in government funding for their work, said Professor Barry Halliwell, deputy president (Research and Technology) NUS.

Research will focus on designing seawater desalination systems that do not need large amounts of energy to run or which use solar or other sources of power; they will also research methods of purifying and reusing water.

GE Water's general manager for the Asia-Pacific, Mr Kevin Cassidy, said state-of-the-art desalination systems require a relatively large amount of energy to run - roughly 3 kilowatt-hour for each cubic metre - which many countries can ill afford.

He offered this as an indication of the level of efficiency being sought after: 'If we put 100 litres of water through a high-pressure system, currently, we may get 95 litres of clean water. We want to find ways to get 98 or even 99 litres of clean water.'

Prof Saunders said having an industry-university partnership was critical for universities to be successful in the next decade or two.

It allows universities to do more and gives their students research opportunities that put them 'closer to the real world', he added.