Netherlands-based companies Aquaver and Bredenoord are collaborating to demonstrate that water treatment can be powered by waste heat from power generators, enabling water and energy cogeneration, through the addition of Aquaver devices to existing power generators.
Aquaver has developed commercial water treatment systems based on membrane distillation, a novel technology that can purify almost any water type using low temperature heat as energy source. Bredenoord has over 70 years' experience in manufacturing temporary, permanent and mobile power systems.
Current water treatment systems used in remote areas or for temporary locations have high energy requirements. In many cases this energy is supplied by diesel power generators. Power generators typically convert 40-45% of the diesel energy into electrical energy, while the rest is wasted as low temperature heat, being removed from the engine by its cooling system. Aquaver and Bredenoord wanted to demonstrate a more efficient approach, in which the low temperature waste heat is used to power a water treatment system. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce the electrical energy consumption of the water treatment system by between 50-75%. This solution is more efficient, requiring less diesel to purify water, and also more sustainable, since every litre of water produced has a 50-75% smaller carbon footprint.
In order to demonstrate the novel water treatment approach Aquaver and Bredenoord have successfully run a pilot project at Kamperland, Zeeland (The Netherlands). Bredenoord modified and supplied one of its power generator systems (15 kVA) to power an Aquaver water treatment system WTS-40. The WTS-40 successfully purified over 1500 litres of seawater per day with excellent water quality (<10 μS/cm). The WTS-40 and the power generator are connected with a closed water circuit, which transfers the heat from the diesel cooling system to the WTS-40. The simple modifications needed to couple the generator cooling circuit to the WTS-40 can be adapted to any size of liquid cooled power generator.
Aquaver has products with water outputs covering 1500 l/day to 100.000 l/day, and Bredenoord offers power systems covering 5 kVA to 2000 kVA. They can be used to provide energy and water to communities in remote locations or for temporary situations.
