INNOVATION January-February 2012

f ea t u r e s

Saltwater Solutions BC company Saltworks is engineering enterprising and economic solutions for the desalination of water

Jean Sorensen

wastewater into fresh water for multiple uses. In 8,000 square feet of office, research and development, and manufacturing space located in multiple facilities on the foreshore of Vancouver’s port, Saltworks has developed a series of systems aimed at addressing different aspect of desalination. At the headquarters is a fully permitted hybrid desalination plant and salt-making unit. The low- pressure, low-cost plant is largely made from plastics and offers considerable energy savings. “We are treating water in a number of different ways—just like there are different forms of energy

Desalination, the process of removing salt from water, is a burgeoning industry, with publications such as Water Industry News estimating that from 2005-2015 approximately $95 billion will be expended with $48 billion for new capacity as populations in the Middle East and China boost the need for fresh water. “Water is the third biggest industry in the world,” says CEO and co-founder Ben Sparrow PEng of Saltworks Technologies, a BC company that has engineered new desalination processes aimed at addressing the world’s growing need for fresh water as well as helping resource companies turn their

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