Where we are today

The growth of populations around the globe is pushing the supplies of clean, cheap, local water beyond their limits. It is estimated that this year over one billion people will lack good, safe, clean water for their daily lives. Water, along with safe air to breathe is fundamental and vital to life and the living process. The UN Secretary General predicts that water will soon become a bigger issue than global warming.

Suns River - A New Patented Innovation

Suns River brings forth a new, patented innovation in solar powered distillation with potential to become the low cost leader in desalination. The Suns River Still (SRS) multiplies classic still productivity by a factor of 5, operates on 95 – 100% renewable energy and has very low environmental impact. SRS has low sensitivity to higher salt concentrations. Thus feed streams can include water from the sea, rivers, saline wells and wastewater. With its product of pure, distilled water, Suns River can redefine the concept of hybridization of solar with existing desalination processes.

It would be...'the achievement of one of man's oldest dreams: Securing fresh water from salt water...one of the great scientific breakthroughs of history. When that day comes then we will literally see the deserts bloom.

June 21, 1961, President John F. Kennedy

Suns River - Solar Distillation

Suns River Solar Distillation provides mineral-free water. Most importantly, it removes heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, and mercury from contaminated water and hardening agents like calcium and phosphorous. Distillation is recommended as the preferred water purification method in developing nations and in areas where the risk of waterborne disease is high, because of its unique capabilities to remove bacteria and viruses from affected drinking water.

Operating and maintenance costs for SRS are a fraction of that of current leading technologies. Extensive pilot plant testing has shown that SRS technology is completely scalable and can be built large for municipal and industrial needs and small for community and family needs.

Critical shortages in supplies of fresh water are already impacting millions and millions of people around the world and the situation is only going to worsen as populations grow. With more than one billion people already lacking adequate water for living in 2009, water scarcity will soon be a bigger issue than global warming according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Global desalination capacity from the present 14,000 RO plants is expected to increase to more than double that by 2016. Wastewater reuse, once a virtually forbidden topic, is now practiced, or under consideration by many of world’s major industrial companies and one quarter of its major cities. In fact, over the next decade, water reuse capacity is expected to triple. Growth in desalination/ wastewater reuse is predicted to be explosive in the coming decades.

Growing shortages and unequal distribution of water are also causing disagreements, sometimes violent, and becoming a security risk in many regions. UK’s former defence secretary, John Reid, warns of coming "water wars.” Around the world, more than 215 major rivers and 300 groundwater basins and aquifers are shared by two or more countries, creating tensions over ownership and use of the precious waters they contain.

Success in this increasingly stressed environment will call for flexibility and versatility of technologies. Suns River technology innovations address a significant portion of the mix of water purification requirements, thus adding a very viable water desalination option. It has low cost features; it is simple to operate and has low environmental impact using almost entirely renewable energy. This technology is ideal to help meet the recent legislative requirements (by US and Australia) of zero carbon impact for new desalination installations.

In addition, SRS technology is a clear choice to replace existing carbon fuel based desalination. The already favourable economics of the Suns River still will be enhanced by the resulting carbon credits. Applied in the coastal deserts particularly Middle East, western Africa, India, Western Australia and Mexico, SRS technology can birth new economies in desert agriculture/ forestry and water exportation.

Suns River Solar Still

The classic solar still features a greenhouse canopy installed over a pool of seawater. Fresh water which condenses on the inside of the translucent covering is collected at the inside base of the canopy. Maximum water production of 4 litres per square meter of floor surface represents recovery equivalent to only 25 – 30% of incoming solar energy insolation.

There are several important factors that enhance performance of a Suns River Still configuration. These include dry arid conditions throughout the year, availability of inexpensive land, strength of solar insolation (above 5KWh /sq. m), sizable difference between day & night temperatures, feed stream characteristics (ocean, an inland brackish well, RO brine or river), and latitude/ longitude & proximity to the Equator. Under the ideal conditions, the Suns River Still can yield around 20 litres per sq. metre.

Evaporation on the solar-heated Still floor maintains 100% humidity inside the still at 30 - 50ºC above ambient temperature. Coastal desert installations can have deep ocean water feed as cold as 10ºC and ambient temperatures of 60ºC. These conditions provide a thermal drive for the tubing condensation of around 90ºC.

The product water is mineral free, including boron, arsenic or fluoride, which are a huge concern in many parts of the world that have contaminated ground water. The SRS water is bacteria free. For human consumption, minerals need to be added to the distilled water in the form of salts to bring up the content up to municipal, agricultural, or other standards.

In November 2009, at the International Desalination Association’s (IDA) Conference held in Dubai, Suns River announced our intent to co-develop a Suns River Still (SRS) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) hybrid configuration. It is our intent to work with Partners on the applicability of SRS-RO hybrid plants and the use of RO ‘waste water’ into a Suns River configuration to produce more distilled water. This would increase the RO plant’s efficiency and ROI. It may be possible for an RO-plant to leverage available carbon credits.

Summary

Suns River performs in many settings and best in those areas of the world:

• Which are in the rain shadow
• That are dry and arid
• Where little or no rain falls throughout the year

Ideally a SRS should be installed in a desert area adjacent to a community, or a facility be provided to pipe the distilled water to where it is needed. The SRS can accept brackish water, sea water, oil production co-product water, river water and even municipal waste water (after filtration and removal of dissolved gases).