Technology
Waterwhelm’s breakthrough water re-use and desalination technology operates at significantly lower pressure, resulting in lower capital and maintenance cost. Powered by waste heat, our circular solution achieves a world-beating reduction in electricity consumption and CO2 emissions.
Waterwhelm provides a game-changing solution for water re-use and desalination. Our forward osmosis (FO) technology has been validated by some of the largest water companies globally. The technology operates at low pressures (2-4 bar) and is powered by waste heat (or solar thermal/geothermal energy), therefore, in comparison to reverse osmosis (RO), our FO technology uses 80% less electricity and 35% less CAPEX, realising a significant reduction in CO2 emissions.
Waterwhelm’s FO technology also has several advantages in terms of durability of membranes and maintenance costs, compared to other membrane technologies. The ultra-low operating pressures result in substantially lower levels of fouling and scaling, therefore enable lower operating costs in membrane replacement and use of chemicals.
Waterwhelm will implement this technology across municipal and industrial wastewater treatment sites for water re-use purposes as well as in desalination of seawater or brackish water. The technology plays a complementary role in other sectors such as hydrogen production, power plants, chemical plants, pharmaceutical plants, refineries, manufacturing plants to utilise waste heat in the context of circular economy and contribute to achieving net-zero emissions globally.
An alternative to Reverse Osmosis (RO) that works with heat rather than electricity
Lower Electricity
Lower Capex
Lower CO2 Emmissions
Applications
Water Re-use
Waterwhelm’s technology can use effluent from wastewater treatment plants to produce water for industrial re-use purposes. The technology is powered by waste heat, available at wastewater treatment plants or from industrial facilities such as hydrogen production, power plants, chemical plants, refineries, manufacturing plants. This, circular economy approach maximises efficiency of producing re-use water since waste resources are fully utilised.
Developing technology for efficient and sustainable water re-use/desalination now is a new, pre-emptive way of working towards a new supply-side option for improved water resilience in face of water scarcity, reduced abstractions, increasing population demands and increased industrial activity.
Waterwhelm can facilitate water trading between wastewater treatment plants and other industrial sites which could contribute savings up to £1billion in the UK alone, offsetting huge industrial cluster water demand averaging 540 MLD (UK) and hydrogen production demands of water equivalent of 3.3m people (UK).
Desalination
Waterwhelm’s technology provides a transformative method for desalination with substantially higher performance than reverse osmosis (RO) or thermal technologies such as MSF and MED. Capable of using waste heat as the energy driving force (or solar thermal or geothermal energy), our pioneering solution eliminates the need for high-pressure components such as high-pressure pumps, high-pressure vessels, high-pressure piping and high-pressure instruments. The result is an 80% reduction in electricity consumption as well as lower capital and maintenance costs.
Hydrogen water supply
Water supply is one of the major challenges in scaling up hydrogen production globally. According to Rystad Energy, 85% of green hydrogen projects planned until 2040 globally may need to source their water from desalination. Waterwhelm’s solution can utilise inherent waste heat sources in the production and utilisation of hydrogen to supply the water required in hydrogen production in a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly manner without compromising local water supplies.
Benefits
Significantly reducing the cost of producing freshwater and therefore its availability and affordability
A transformative new supply-side option to mitigate water scarcity addressing climate change effects
Supporting increasing water demand from industrial development for example in renewable energy generation, manufacturing, hydrogen production and sustainable aviation fuel production
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