INNOVATION January-February 2012

“We are treating water in a number of different ways—just like there are different forms of energy used today. There is no one silver bullet.”

used today. There is no one silver bullet,” Sparrow says, adding that the company’s proprietary systems are providing a low-cost alternative to conventional systems, making them more accessible for implementation in applications ranging from use in impoverished countries to site- specific industrial applications. “We have three patents granted and 19 pending,” says Sparrow, who is reluctant to talk specific technology until the patents are finalized. The company is now moving towards greater production as well as continuing its product improvement and more innovations. Within the next 12-24 months, it expects it will expand to larger manufacturing facilities in order to meet the needs of a growing international customer base. Recently, Saltworks sold its remote- controlled desalination unit to the Canadian military, while another innovation, its SaltMaker, went to an Australian energy company. A complete desalination system will be shipped to a client in the Alberta oil sands in spring 2012. There are basically four technology platforms that the company has developed. The first consists of pretreatment capability and various processes, which takes salt water and removes contaminates, making it easier to separate the salt and water at a later stage. The second and third platforms involve the desalination processes, one of which is a fully automated reverse osmosis desalination unit (sold to the military) while the third area consists of a hybrid desalination that uses two different methods of separation to increase water recovery. The hybrid units are applicable to inland operations where the conventional

and common reverse osmosis method is used to removes 75% of the fresh water, leaving brine. This remaining 25% brine is then put through Saltworks’ electro- chemical process removing the salt. The fourth technology platform is the development of its SaltMaker, which is then able to process the salt into crystals so that it can be utilized or disposed of by the end user. A saltwater Battery The concept of using a low-cost means of separating salt from water has fascinated Sparrow since working with BC Hydro where he managed a $500 million portfolio of power plant rehabilitation projects. He was interested in the thermodynamics of saline solutions, focusing on the ability of higher concentrated levels of saline in water to serve as a natural energy system to separate another stream of saltwater. It has become integral to Saltworks’ electro- chemical and hybrid systems. Sparrow explains it like this: “This is an electro-chemical waste heat driven process. We start with a stack that is a saltwater battery, analogous in construction to a plate and frame heat exchanger. However, in this case, the plates are ion exchange membranes. They only allow passage of salt, no water.” (Saltworks has now invented and manufactures its own ion membrane polymers and saltwater battery stacks). Usually a small voltage is needed to facilitate the forcing of the salt through the membrane but Saltworks instead uses the concept of the saltwater battery. “Regular sea water has 3.5% salt,” he says, adding the salt water is sprayed into the air in a cooling tower, which causes water to disperse into the atmosphere leaving the

Andrea Sunderland Photography

(l-r) Saltworks co-founders Joshua Zoshi EIT and Ben Sparrow PEng have turned Thermo-lonics into an innovative business opporunity

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