Water management firm, STW Water Process and Technologies, has expanded its role in its exclusive agreement with Sunstone Water Group to commercialize Sunstone’s patented wastewater effluent treatment technology to provide direct potable reuse (DPR) in municipal markets.
Sunstone will relocate its US manufacturing operation at STW’s headquarters in Midland, Texas and will be a co-partner in a new joint venture manufacturing company.
Sunstone’s technology can be applied to processing municipal wastewater effluent to potable drinking water. STW Water Process and Technologies’ parent, STW Resources will make Sunstone’s technology available for use in disaster relief and recovery.
STW said Sunstone’s technology increases STW’s water treatment capability and takes it closer to the company’s model of being a source for cleaning all types of water. The Sunstone technology is currently operating in many countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. STW Water will be taking the lead for marketing and deployment of the process in the US.
Under the agreement, Sunstone and STW will combine their technologies to provide municipalities with a water purification services package. In September, STW and Sunstone will begin a pilot project, subject to the oversight of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), with a Texan city to demonstrate the performance of the system and to also gain acceptance and approval for use commercially in municipalities.
While several technologies are on the market for municipal water treatment, Sunstone has developed and patented a system that is far advanced technologically to any other systems available according to STW.
DPR – sometimes dubbed “toilet-to-tap” processing - has drawn limited commitment from the industry and its public acceptance has been slow in emerging. But persistent drought in various regions of the US and the rest of the world are making it a growing necessity.
Sunstone’s zero liquid discharge (ZLD) system combines several established technologies in the economical and sustainable removal of salt and contaminants from liquids wastewater and other water sources. According top STW it can remove more than 300,000 parts per million (ppm) of TDS to recover more than 95% fresh water. Seawater reverse osmosis typically can recover freshwater at up to 50% and is not effective at a TDS above 40,000 ppm. STW will co-manufacture the Sunstone systems in their Midland facility and take the lead for sales and distribution of this technology.
President of STW Water, Alan Murphy, said: “[Sunstone’s] founder, Elo Nielsen, is one of the brightest engineers that I have ever met. We have the technology to clean and process nearly every type of contaminated water for reuse now. Everyone needs to realize that water is a commodity that has to be conserved in every way possible. Elo has designed and is designing other technologies for our group that are state-of-the-art compared to other technologies on the market for water purification.”