Flow reversal firm Rotec has won the Rising Star Award at TechXchange at Singapore International Water Week 2018.
The Israeli company was recognised for its entrepreneurial flair, for perseverance, and for developing its technology into a viable commercial product.
The flow reversal concept was discovered at Ben Gurion University, and the company was supported as a start-up by the Israeli government’s incubator programme. Israel’s water utility Mekorot tested the technology in a pilot project at Eliat Desalination Plant in 2011, resulting in a 15 per cent increase in recovery. Dutch firm Vitens tested it at a plant in Friesland, the Netherlands, in 2012, improving recovery by 15 to 20 per cent.
In 2015, Rotec retrofitted Kranji Water Reclamation Plant in Singapore.
“The strength of the technology is in its simplicity. We are enhancing the efficiency of reverse osmosis (RO) desalination, working at high recovery rates and minimising the hazard of scaling,” said Rotec chief executive Noam Perlmuter.
The company has developed three products: a super-high recovery RO system with flow reversal embedded; a customised retrofit package for existing RO plants; and an engineering package.