Singapore’s PUB awards SG$1.7M to Hydroleap and NUS

Hydroleap has partnered with the NUS Environmental Research Institute (NERI) at National University of Singapore (NUS) to develop a low-cost electrochemical pretreatment technology for the desalination of seawater.

Desalination is a rapidly growing industry as there are increasing concerns around freshwater scarcity and water security. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is the dominant membrane technology used for seawater desalination, but can be very inefficient in the presence of contaminants that can clog or foul membranes. This can lead to higher energy and other operating costs. Due to this, pretreatment processes are required to minimize the presence of contaminants. Current technologies make extensive use of chemicals to aid with the removal of contaminants. However there are major drawbacks, as a high chemical dosage is required when the concentration of contaminants are high in the intake seawater. This is both expensive, and environmentally unfriendly.

Hydroleap and NUS’s alternative technology in electrocoagulation is set to provide an effective and efficient electrochemical pretreatment process that does not use chemicals, while not requiring significant energy input. Combined, the technology is estimated to lead towards a 60% reduction in pretreatment operating costs.
With a total budget allocated at SGD 1.7M, the project will advance NUS’s and Hydroleap’s work to commercialize disruptive technologies from lab to applications in the real-world.

#Hydroleap #NUS #CentreforWaterResearch #PUB #Desalination #Pretreatment #ElectricalTreatment #Electrocoagulation