A different pretreatment filtration technology and a new membrane cleaning system are at the heart of IDE ProGreen™, a technology claimed by IDE Technologies to be the first green reverse-osmosis (RO) system for water desalination.
Described as a clean and economical approach to high-quality water production, IDE ProGreen reduces operational costs and increases return on investment by optimizing the energy consumption, eliminating the use and handling of chemicals, and offering a customizable, self-maintained platform. This results in affordable, sustainable, high-quality water for applications worldwide including industry, agriculture and drinking water.
Introduced with a magic/psychic performer at an evening function at the International Desalination Association’s World Congress in Perth, the functioning of the new technology was left as mysterious as the performer’s tricks. However, new D&WR Editorial Board member, IDE’s vice president – membranes, Boris Liberman, told D&WR a little about the new technology, which had been had been hinted at in the November/December 2010 issue’s interview with IDE CEO Avshalom Felber.
Rather than using iron or other coagulants, IDE uses uniquely ecological natural pretreatment. This new pretreatment, together with daily direct osmosis membrane cleaning, does not allow bacteria that developed during pretreatment to grow on the RO membranes. This approach has eliminated the use of chemicals in the pretreatment and desalination processes.
The new water production system is compact and flexible, which makes it easy to transport and install. This significantly reduces costs and eliminates the need to invest in expensive infrastructure. In addition, as part of the desalination process, the patented RO Membrane Direct Osmosis Cleaning (DOC) system reduces the amount of energy consumed in the desalination process, and enables chemical-free membrane cleaning for uninterrupted operation and stable performance, which increases the system’s availability.