Freshwatermill

Water desalination and electricity production at the point of use

Application areas

  • Islands, coastal areas
  • Remote locations
  • Nature reserves
  • Seawater desalination
  • Groundwater desalination

Key markets

  • Remote communities, villages
  • Agrisector (chicken farms etc.)
  • Temporary construction camps

Development phase

  • TRL6 (system as a whole)
  • TRL10 (RO units)

References

  • No commercial references yet.

Module

  • Desalination

Submodule

  • Decentralized systems

Description of Technology

Wind-driven water desalination technology can be used for seawater, produced water, or brackish groundwater desalination. Hydraulic wind turbine with high conversion efficiency provides pressure for water desalination, and access energy can be used for pumping the water, or for electricity generation. The hydraulic windmill does not have a gearbox resulting in much lower operating costs compared to conventional windmills.

Unique Selling Points

Pros

  • High efficiency and low maintenance system (no gearbox)
  • No external power supply needed
  • In case there’s insufficient wind, additional power is provided by the generator
  • Amount of water versus electricity produced can be tuned for each specific project
  • Equipment sale or WaaS (water as a service) contracts are possible
  • High impact factor

Cons

  • System design does not yet have operational experience
  • Pre-treatment requirements depend on project