Brisbane-based EESTech Inc announced on 30 March 2009 a license agreement with another Queensland, Australia, company Impulse Control Pty Ltd to bring EESTech’s Jetwater mechanical vapour compression (MVC) desalination technology to the burgeoning Australian coal-seam gas industry.
EESTech (which stands for Economically and Environmentally Sustainable Technologies) owns or holds the rights to three environmentally sustainable technologies, including the JetWater technology, that have direct applications to the coal mining and energy industries. Impulse Control, which manufactures reverse-osmosis (RO) systems for marine and other applications, has experience in water treatment for the coal-seam gas industry.
The Queensland state government will not in future allow coal-seam gas producers to continue to store contaminated water that has been removed from the mine to stimulate the gas flow or discharge it into waterways. Impulse’s general manager, Said Riachi, said that the partnership with EESTech provides them with the final piece of the jigsaw as it will allow the contaminated water to be cleaned to near 100% purity, using a combination of RO and MVC desalination methods.
Although the JetWater technology is based on well-known and widely understood chemical and thermodynamic principles, EESTech claims that its development team has refined the processes to greatly increase effectiveness and efficiency.
EESTech’s CEO, Murray Bailey, said that a major benefit of the technology is that it can purify up to 97% of the feed-water, compared with less than 75% by most membrane systems. This means that there is no need for evaporation ponds, which are unsightly, costly to construct and maintain and leave a long-term negative environmental legacy.
For further information, visit www.eestechinc.com and www.impulsehydro.com .