INNOVATION DESCRIPTION
Our drinkable water plant operates under the solar-driven humidification- dehumidification of air (HDH) principle. HDH takes advantage of the difference in evaporation temperatures of the different components found in water to separate them. The primary product is distilled water, free of particles, which is then remineralized for human consumption. We named our design Potabilis which means "drinkable" in Latin.
HDH water treatment plants are mainly composed of three components: solar collector, humidifier, and dehumidifier (condenser). These are organized in different arrays and stages according to their production capacity. The solar collector is the heart of the plant, functioning as a water heater, capturing solar thermal energy to increase the temperature of the water to be treated. The humidifier is where the separation of the water components occurs, saturating the air with clean steam. In the dehumidifier, this steam is condensed and the required distilled water is produced. After this process, water is then remineralized. The shown scheme corresponds to a single-stage plant.
Note: This technology requires a source of raw-water to supply drinkable water. It cannot produce water from ambient steam.
Uniqueness
Low Levelized Cost of Water (LWC)
The Levelized Cost of Water takes into consideration all the different aspects of the water plant operation: initial investment, cost of energy, operating life-span, operation and maintenance costs, etc. In the range of 200 - 50,000 L/day our Potabilis technology has a 6-30% lower LWC than Reverse Osmosis’ (RO). This is mainly due to its significantly lower energy consumption, minimum maintenance requirement, and the possibility of using local labor without specialized skilled-set for operation and management.
Promotes user empowerment
Our Potabilis technology is completely designed considering the actual requirements and needs of remote communities. We provide an Easy-to-Use operation that consists mainly of one power switch and on-off valves. We use everyday items and minimal instrumentation, so the system is easy to maintain. All of these attributes, combined with our social capacity-building program, the community is then empowered by our solution, fomenting local economic growth. This is one of our key value-propositions.
Flexible Operation
Our Potabilis technology is very flexible in its operation and application. It can treat sea, brackish, lake, river and contaminated water alike -even separating heavy metals from water- without requiring modifications. This is a huge advantage of Potabilis over conventional technologies because most of them need to be adapted accordingly to the raw-water quality they encounter. Potabilis can be installed anywhere drinkable water is needed.
Extensive Compliance of Health and Environmental regulations
Clean water produced from Potabilis technology complies extensively with WHO's drinkable water standards, as well as EPA's part 141 code, and the US's SDWA (Safe Drinking Water Act) for all of the different types of raw-water it can treat. With Potabilis technology, unlike Reverse Osmosis, there is no need to apply any sort of chemical treatment to its rejected water to comply with environmental regulations. All waste or brine can be safely returned to the supply source without any environmental damage.