Water & Wastewater Asia May/Jun 2021

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HOTSEAT THE GAME- CHANGING technology “We are pioneers with a vision and a mission to provide limitless supplies of fresh water where it is needed most and to do so in a carbon neutral and sustainable way,” said David Reavley, CEO of Solar Water Plc. “Of course, there can be reservations from some people with embracing any new technology, but all it takes is for imaginative champions with belief to step forward and join us in making a positive change happen!” he added. GOING BACK IN TIME Solar Water Plc’s technology promises to revolutionise the water desalination process with pioneering technology to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems — sustainable and affordable access to fresh water. Photo credit: Juniper Photon/Unsplash The game-changing technology provides limitless supplies of fresh water in a carbon neutral, cost effective manner, using the concentrating power of sunlight. “This means that desalination no longer has to be costly, polluting and unsustainable,” explained Reavley. Mirroring the natural hydrological cycle process: evaporation, condensation and precipitation, with only the sun as the energy source, Solar Water’s technology ensures fresh water is supplied in a carbon neutral, cost effective manner. By Pang Yanrong David Reavley, CEO of Solar Water Plc 48
WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | MAY/JUNE 2021 The idea and company were founded by Malcolm Aw, who wanted to find a sustainable alternative approach, developed an initial concept, and took his thought process to Cranfield University in the UK, the global headquarters for Concentrated Solar Power initiatives. Together, they became a consultative partner and through working with Cranfield University for about two and a half years, Solar Water created a possible, marketable, engineering capable solution. “About 18 months ago, we reached the point of sufficient development to then market and commercialise our solution,” said Reavley. “At that stage, we were honoured to win the Rushlight 2018 Award for Water Treatment, promoting the development and deployment of clean technologies, innovation and sustainable solutions.” Solar Water won for being the first scalable carbon-neutral hydroinfrastructure solution. In fact, the company created some noise initially with their attendance at water conferences around the world. “We went to Madrid, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Manila, and we told the audiences there that we had an alternative, that we had a solution. We were then invited on a trade mission to Saudi Arabia. Through that, we met with a number of Saudi industrialists and conglomerates who were very interested in what we do, including Neom,” explained Reavley. “The upshot was that at the end of 2019, we signed a contract with NEOM (northwestern Saudi Arabia). And in January 2020, we signed a contract with a company called Jordan Phosphate Mine Company, JPMC, at their plant based in Aqaba (Jordan).” THE CRISIS According to WWF (World Wildlife Fund), water covers 70% of earth and it is easy to think that it will always be plentiful. However, freshwater—the stuff humans drink, bathe in, irrigate the farm fields with—is incredibly rare. Only 3% of the world’s water is fresh water. In addition, to some estimates, global demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% by 2030; at the same time, climate change could shrink rainfall, snowpack and freshwater availability by 40% by 2050; and the world’s population is due to grow by a further 15% by 2035. “Together these effects will continue to grow water stress and scarcity with depleting supplies of freshwater for socio-economic development — absolute shortages for domestic use, agriculture, industry, tourism, and health & wellbeing. All these needs and ambitions are reliant on water and will be limited and stressed by a lack of it,” commented Reavley. “In the worst scenarios around the world, water becomes the new oil and with that comes all the geopolitical issues that we know are connected to that, including water conflict and famine.” Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination systems have served water shortage quite well for many decades, but the world has woken up to problems within this interconnected crisis system that RO adds to, said Reavley. The plants are energy intensive and fossil fuels burnt for this are currently leaving a massive carbon footprint with about 76 million tonnes of CO2 each year, a number that is expected to rise to around 2018 million tonnes by 2040 — all of which will only help to accelerate climate change. Additionally, RO membranes have to be disposed of in landfill and take up to 400 years to decompose. SO HOW DOES SOLAR WATER’S TECHNOLOGY HELPS? “Our technology is based on harnessing concentrated solar power to enhance the natural process of evaporation, condensation and precipitation,” explained Reavley. Solar Water’s SWCSP-D plants are infrastructurally spherical with the top half (the dome) being the solar receiver and the bottom half (the basin) being the cauldron. The structures are effectively solar furnaces that use solar power to produce high How the process works 49
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Page 6: FROM THE EDITOR WATER & WASTEWATER
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Page 20 and 21: 5 MINS WITH GLOBAL WATER AWARDS: Re
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Page 36 and 37: FOCUS New systems must be designed
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Page 44 and 45: VIEWPOINT such as third-party inves
Page 46 and 47: VIEWPOINT READY OR NOT, here ICS co
Page 48 and 49: VIEWPOINT Electrical Incidents can
Page 52 and 53: HOTSEAT THE PROCESS 1 2 3 4 5 Seawa
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Page 56 and 57: SWA [Hybrid] Event - in conjunction
Page 58 and 59: Thai Water Expo 2021 14 to 16 Octob
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Page 62 and 63: ON OUR RADAR KSB AUSTRALIA INVESTS
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Water & Wastewater Asia May/Jun 2021

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