Suns River Blog

August 2011 Update

SunsRiver — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:38:34 +0000

Suns River desalination continues to advance along its development track. The US Patent Office has now published a second patent on our process and we now have two Patent Pending documentations of the 99% solar process. In addition we are finalists to install a commercial sized unit at the US Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation desalination site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, US. This exciting development will show the process performance in the inland, high desert country. This in addition to the seaside versions we first conceived.
We plan to have a site ready for customer visits by mid 2012 and our visits with users in India showed only a taste of the huge demand for fresh water in large sectors of the world. We have been busy certifying the science behind this remarkable breakthrough. We look to 2012 as a major milestone in bringing critically needed water to people desperately in need.

INDIA COMMITMENT TO SOLAR DESALINATION

SunsRiver — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:40:59 +0000

The government of Gujarat in northwest India has indicated their strong interest in developing solar desalination in that province. Gujarat is well placed to take advantage of Suns River solar distillation desalination. The northwest Indian coast provides all the key elements for maximum success at minimum cost. We welcome the minister’s announcement. Here is the link to the announcement. http://www.desalination.biz/news/news_story.asp?src=nl&id=5825

Research confirms productivity

SunsRiver — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:16:34 +0000

The performance of falling film evaporation, as in the Suns River Still, continues to be an area of study and development among chemical engineering researchers. Suns River testing indicates evaporation rates using our falling film design are 4 – 6 times that of the pooled classic still. The study comparing falling film efficiencies to pool boiling most often cited is Danilova, Burkin, et. al. (1976) [http://www.wlv.com/products/databook/db3/data/db3ch14.pdf Page 14, Figure 14.9(c) ]. The Danilova research clearly shows falling film outperforming pool boiling by factors of 4 – 6. The Suns River Still confirms that range of improvement and the resulting improvement in productivity. Operating costs for the Suns River Still are a fraction of the nearest competing technology using energy which is more than 98% renewable. We are developing some designs using 100% renewable energy.

New Development

SunsRiver — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:12:17 +0000

The progress of the Suns River solar distillation over the last several months has been spectacular. Since our excellent reception at the International Desalination Association meeting in Dubai last fall we have taken our design concepts through detailed engineering. In conversation with a number of interested parties we have designed several configurations of the SRS still. The process has proven to be as flexible as it is revolutionary. Our recent breakthrough means that Suns River capital cost is even lower than previous.The worldwide economic decline has hampered our progress somewhat but thirsty populations and cheap, low carbon impact water production continue to move us ahead. And our continuing research has opened up possibilities in a range of energy sources and production. Watch this site for further developments.

Big announcement due soon

SunsRiver — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:03:08 +0000

We at Sun’s River have been working diligently to move this technology from the pilot plant stage to the commercial stage. Developments and negotiations are progressing well and we expect more announcements in the near future. With operating costs a fraction of the current best technology, there is a fundamental shift coming in the world of desalination.

New Breakthrough website

SunsRiver — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:38:25 +0000

The new website for Sun’s River was posted yesterday. Check this site in future for the latest developments in solar distillation. We hope to have an announcement soon on a major step to open this new water source for the world.

Here’s the site: www.suns-river.com

Give us your comments on this blog for now and that website soon.

KII, Inc

A water revolution

SunsRiver — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:24:20 +0000

The recent breakthrough that adds production of fresh water using solar energy even at night opens up a number of other applications of Sun’s River technology. Polluted rivers. Waste water. Saline well water.Â All of these are candidates for production of distilled water using 95%+ solar energy with almost no environmental impact. There is a water revolution coming.

Solar power at night???

SunsRiver — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:26:13 +0000

The sun’s power is virtually endless and, given a design to use it, can be a virtually endless resource. The Sun’s River Still continues to demonstrate what creativity and power can accomplish together. Produce fresh water from seawater using solar energy at night?? Sounds beyond the pale. But when set in the proper design context even this is possible. This may cause the reader to question either our sanity or our technical ability. But a quite sane assessment by basic chemical engineering principles supports this.

Desalination Breakthrough

SunsRiver — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:48:37 +0000

Trademark, Sun's River

In the
long path of
history, people have
always looked with thirst at
the huge expanse of the oceans and
wondered how to meet their thirst from
the vast, seemingly endless expanse of water.

S O L A R D E S A L I N A T I O N

WHERE WE ARE TODAY. The growth of populations around the globe is pushing the supplies of cheap, local water beyond their limit. It is estimated that in 2009 that over one billion people will lack good, safe, clean water for their daily lives. Water. This essential together with safe air to breathe are fundamentals vital to life. The UN Secretary General predicts that water will soon become a bigger issue than global warming.

TECHNOLOGY’S ANSWER: DESALINATION. Over the centuries many ideas for removing salt from water have been tried but few have survived. Local, natural sources of water have reached capacity and desalination is more and more the answer to growing demand. Over the last 20 years desalination capacity has grown at a compound rate of 17% per year with some major areas now growing as much as 30% annually. Feed streams include seawater, brackish water, river water, wastewater and others.

The four technologies that account for over 99% of the new capacity are reverse osmosis(RO), multistage flash evaporation(MSF), multiple effect distillation(MED) and electrodialysis(ED). The solar still, tried at commercial scale as early as the 1870’s in Peru, has been left on the technology scrap heap due to low productivity and high cost. RO currently leads other technologies for low cost and therefore gets the biggest share of new capacity, more than double sales of the closest competitor.

THE SOLAR STILL RE-INVENTED. Now Sun’s River has retrieved the solar still from its technological demise and will be debuting the new design in 2009. The Sun’s River still, using 95% or higher renewable energy, is predicted to take the lead for low cost. Among its other advantages the solar still brings low energy usage, near zero carbon footprint, minimal requirement for highly skilled technicians, simple process equipment and minimal environmental impact. In contrast to the other four technologies, the stills most complex item of process equipment is a water pump.