Fortune magazine estimates the water desalination industry to be worth $30 billion and expects this figure to double by 2016. Another publication, Global Water Intelligence, suggests that we will need to triple global desalination capacity to meet the growing demand of potable water. Today, nearly 20% of the global population, or approximately 1.3 billion people,
My Forbes column, Hydro-Alchemy, begins: “Alchemy refers to a medieval science that turns metals into gold. As our planet depletes natural resources at a frantic pace, one brand of alchemy that will become critical to humanity’s survival is technology that turns sea water into drinking water.”
The Economist has an excellent overview of Water Desalination in the current issue. The Sea Water Reverse Osmosis technique that it discusses has been discussed here and on Forbes (Read Hydro-Alchemy) by me before in the context of Energy Recovery, Inc. which is about to go public.
My new Forbes column, Hydro-Alchemy, discusses the world’s upcoming water crisis and an entrepreneurial venture, Energy Recovery Inc., that is tackling the problem with a Sea Water Reverse Osmosis technology for water desalination. You may have read my interview with Hans Peter Michelet last year. ERI has recently filed to go public.
By removing salt from seawater, GE’s newest desalination plant in Algiers will supply enough drinking water to serve 25% of the country’s capital population. GE has joined the Algerian Government, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Algerian Energy Company (AEC), in announcing plans to build Hamma Water Desalination SpA (Hamma) – Africa’s largest