Presented at the 2013 Global Water Summit in Seville, Spain by Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico and chief executive officer of Coca Cola Latin America, the Award was conferred following interviews by a judging panel composed of four experts from different sectors of the water industry and audience votes for the technology deemed to be most likely to live up to the presenting company’s expectations. Watersolutions was one of only four companies selected to participate in the Technology Idol program, which took place before a standing-room only crowd at the Summit.“All of us at Watersolutions are honoured to receive this award. The support we received at the Technology Idol competition reflects the positive response we have received from companies around the world since we formally introduced our technology in late 2012, after proving the concept at a plant in El Gouna, Egypt. We are proud to be part of the solution towards achieving even greater reduction in energy requirements for water treatment,” said Mark Lehmann, chief technology officer of Watersolutions. "Watersolutions' low-temperature distillation process appears to be able to broaden the range of operating conditions and increase the range of applications where thermal desalination technology can be cost-effectively applied,” commented desalination consultant Tom Pankratz, who chaired the 2013 Water Technology Idol.The Watersolutions LTD system was developed for use in seawater desalination, brine concentration, and treatment of produced water from oil and gas exploration. It is able to handle salinities up to 200,000 ppm. The LTD process utilises low grade heat (50-110°C) to produce clean water with low energy consumption and high efficiency, in a simple yet robust way. The low grade heat can come from a variety of sources including power plants (including CSP), district cooling, industry, geothermal, mining, etc. The investment costs are competitive and the operating costs are 50-70 % lower than other technologies.Due to the uniquely designed thermodynamics, the evaporation and condensation happen directly at a low temperature gradient, thus allowing a particularly efficient transformation. There are no tube bundles or membranes; no steam required, and 1m3 of very clean water (< 10 ppm solids) requires only 0.8-1.5 kWh/m3 of electricity. The process is self-adjusting, part load flexible (10-110% of capacity), and needs a minimum of repair and maintenance.This is the third award presented to Watersolutions since late 2012. In November, Watersolutions received the H2O Water Award for the Best Water Project for its plant in El Gouna. In addition, the company and the Technical University of Berlin received the Desertec Best Paper Award for their paper “Modeling the Cogeneration of Power and Water with Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Low Temperature Desalination: New Approach of CSP+D Application with Innovative Low Temperature Desalination”.
