May 18, 2017   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Evoqua Launches Nexed® Electrochemical Desalination Demonstration for Brackish Water with AccelerateH2O

Evoqua Water Technologies today announced it will deliver a new large-scale demonstration for its Nexed® electrochemical desalination technology for brackish water, together with AccelerateH2O, to illustrate the economics and value proposition versus current reverse osmosis technology.

The new brackish water installation, which encompasses a 50 gallon per minute Nexed system at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant in El Paso, TX (KBH), builds upon the current Evoqua pilot for seawater desalination underway in Tuas, Singapore. The demonstration will prove out the economics and value proposition of the Nexed technology in comparison to incumbent RO technology with a focus on higher recovery and lower energy consumption. Once the system is fully operational – which is expected in June 2017 -- Evoqua and AccelerateH2O will invite stakeholders to visit the site and observe the system and operational performance findings during an ‘open house’ style showcase forum in Summer 2017.

“This demonstration is an important and exciting benchmark for the commercially available Nexed system and brackish water desalination technology as a whole,” said James Kohosek, President of Evoqua’s Products and Technologies division. “The partnership between AccelerateH2O, The Center for Inland Desalination Systems at the University of Texas – El Paso, and Evoqua allows some of the leading minds in brackish water desalination to work together for the betterment of all Texas and beyond.”

“Texas is an ideal location in that it faces many of the water challenges that Nexed electrochemical desalination can address,” said Richard Seline, AccelerateH2O Executive Director, “including a high concentration of industries which present applications that the Nexed system can address, such as power generation; food and beverage; agriculture; oil and gas; produced water; municipal desalination; and wastewater reuse.”

Nexed modules are already the foundation of a desalination demonstration facility for seawater desalination in Tuas, Singapore that will expand to 500,000 gallons of desalinated water a day. Evoqua is working with PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, with support from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), through the TechPioneer piloting program. Evoqua also earlier completed a brackish water pilot with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Brackish Groundwater Desalination Research in New Mexico.

How Evoqua’s Nexed modules work

Electrodialysis is a membrane process in which ions are transported through selective ion permeable membranes from one solution to another under the influence of an electrical potential gradient. Alternating ion selective membranes (anionic and cationic) can be configured to create separated streams of purified and concentrated water.

For info on Evoqua’s Nexed electrochemical desalination modules, visit www.nexedwater.com