Siemens Water Technologies is using a Sing$ 4 million (US$ 2.9 million) from Singapore’s Environment & Water Industry Development Council (EWI) to develop an innovative seawater desalination technology, which it claims could cut energy consumption by at least 50% compared with existing desalination technologies.
“We truly consider this developing technology a breakthrough in the desalination market – with significant global implications on water resource management and the wider use of desalination in the future,” says Chuck Gordon, CEO of Siemens Water Technologies.
Siemens will use the research grant to develop the technology at the company’s Singapore-based global R&D center. EWI’s challenge required demonstration of energy consumption of 1.5 kWh/m³. In comparison to most of the actual operating desalination plants which consume as much as 10kWh per cubic meter the reduction could even be much higher.