INNOVATION January-February 2012

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Saltworks has developed four technology platforms for pretreat- ment, desalination and brine treatment. Their Ion Exchange Membrane Production Machine is shown here .

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Andrea Sunderland Photography

remaining water with a higher saline content. This is done until an 18% salt content is reached and that, says Sparrow, “is our fuel.” “If you have 18% on one side and regular sea water on the other side [of the membrane] there is an energy difference created,” Sparrow says. The energy difference pulls the salt through the membrane and desalinated water goes into a third chamber. “So we start with a process where there is more salt and that salt is used to drive out the salt in the solution we want to desalinate,” he says. The Saltworks Thermo-Ionic (a trademark name) system is more energy efficient than the two existing desalination methods on the market today. One is reverse osmosis, which forces water through a membrane at 1,000 psi resulting in fresh water while a brine is left as residual. The other is a thermal distillation system, which includes examples such as multiple effect desalination systems or conventional crystallizers that produce solid salt. These crystallizers are expensive and often beyond the financial reach of various projects and are also the reason that Saltworks has introduced its own SaltMaker made from lower-cost materials. Business Plan spurs Company’s Growth Saltworks’ success is credited in no small part to not only putting together innovative systems but also putting together a viable business venture. Sparrow and co- founder Joshua Zoshi EIT, who graduated from Simon Fraser University’s electrical engineering program, first met through the SFU Master of Business Administration program where they worked on projects together. After completing the program, Sparrow contacted Zoshi later in 2008 with the concept of turning Thermo-Ionics into a business that offered innovative desalination projects. “I did my due diligence on the technology and really checked out whether this would work,” he recounts, as well as looking at what opportunities were available for such technology. “The lack of water in the world, the novelty and elegance of the technology, and the tremendous opportunities plus the ability to effect social change were compelling.”

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